The Closure of Knowing
by sam0506
Summary: The war has ended but certain people will not be able to find peace until they know what Dumbledore's mission had truly entailed. People's reactions to the harrowing adventure of DH. Rated T for safety.
1. Preamble of Sorts

**A/N: This is my first fanfic and I'm not that great of a writer so... :)**

It had been a few weeks since the end of the war and life was getting back on track.

George had returned to Diagon Alley and was preparing to reopen the joke shop without his brother. Harry could tell that grief still pulled at the remaining Weasley twin, but that George was trying his hardest to move on.

Hermione had brought her parents home from Australia and revived their memories. They had not been pleased with Hermione's decision to modify their minds but understood the reasoning behind it. They were now living in a small apartment in London since their old house had been sold before the move to Austrailia. Hermione had chosen to stay at the Burrow for the time being, claiming that the apartment was too small for three people and that she wanted to be there for the Weasleys during their time of need.

Ginny had been spending increasing amounts of time at George's shop; helping him prepare for the reopening. Mrs. Weasley had been reluctant to let her youngest child out of her sight but realized that George's needs were greater than her own.

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Harry, Ron, and Hermione were eating breakfast in the Burrow's kitchen one morning when the owl arrived. Harry noticed the bird immediately. He had thought that it was Hedwig because it had pale feathers and glowing eyes. As the owl approached, Harry saw that it did not have snowy white plumage and amber eyes as Hedwig had while alive, but rather light beige feathers and dark brown eyes. Harry swallowed the lump in his throat and opened the kitchen window. The owl swooped in and landed with a thud on the kitchen table. There were three letters tied to the owl's leg. Harry untied them and passed them out. Ron, Hermione, and himself had each received a letter with their names scrawled on the envelopes in bright green ink. The Hogwarts crest adorned the back, sealing them closed.

"Blimey, these aren't book lists for us are they?" Ron asked, twisting the letter back and forth so as to catch light on the Hogwarts wax seal.

"No, they can't be." Hermione intoned logically, "We aren't even students anymore. Besides, Ginny would have gotten one too."

Harry sat up straighter at the sound of Ginny's name. They hadn't spoken much since the battle. Harry knew Ginny was still distressed over the death of her brother and he didn't want to restart their relationship until she was emotionally ready.

Harry snapped out of his daydream when he heard Hermione sigh with impatience. "I guess I'm going to open it then." she said, grabbing a knife off of the table and slicing through the seal on the envelope. Hermione pulled the letter out of its envelope and began to read it quickly, her eyes sliding back and forth at an alarming rate. "Its from Professor McGonagall. It says that she wants us to meet her at a restaurant called The Phoenix, on Palace Street, in Victoria tomorrow at 11 o' clock. I wonder why on earth she wants see us?"

"She probably wants to make you a teacher or something, Hermione." Ron said sniggering.

"I doubt that very much Ronald! I didn't even complete my education." Hermione retorted, fidgeting in her chair as though she was embarrassed to say those words out loud. Ron wisely backed off the subject and Harry opened his letter. It seemed to be the same one that Hermione had.

They spent the rest of the day theorizing about the meeting. Each scenario they crafted was more unlikely then the last. Finally, nighttime arrived and all three went to bed.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The next morning, Harry got up earlier than usual. He was anxious for the meeting with Professor McGonagall. Harry hoped that his former teacher didn't try to convince him to return to Hogwarts. He desperately wanted to see the castle again but knew that the bad memories collected there were still too fresh to revisit.

Harry got dressed and wandered down to the Burrow's kitchen. Mrs. Weasley was standing at the counter, preparing a skillet full of bacon.

"Morning, Harry, dear. Spot of breakfast?" Harry nodded and smiled. As he sat down, Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley kept glancing at him nervously, as if she were hiding something.

Trying to ignore Mrs. Weasley's attentions, Harry turned in his seat and looked at the wall where the Weasley's magical clock hung. Instead of numbers, the clock face was engraved with sayings like; "HOME," "TRAVELING," and "MORTAL PERIL." Nine hands adorned the clock. When Bill and Fleur had gotten married last year, a hand with Fleur's name had magically appeared on the clock. Mrs. Weasley had said that this was not her doing and that that clock had been adding hands to itself since she first began having children. It was no surprise then, that when the family had returned to the Burrow, after the battle, Fred's clock hand was not there. Mrs. Weasley had been deeply shaken by this and had taken to ignoring the clock's presence altogether.

Ron and Hermione arrived in the kitchen twenty minutes later, looking slightly nervous. They sat down with Harry and had a silent breakfast. Just as the group was finishing their meal, Mr. Weasley walked into the kitchen.

"Mo-orn-ning, all." he said, yawning. "I don't have to go into work today so Mrs. Weasley and I will apparate with you all to The Three Broomsticks- we have stuff to pick up on Diagon Alley."

"What sort of stuff, Dad?" Ron asked. Mr. Weasley shifted his jaw from one side to the other and scratched the back of his head anxiously.

"Just odds and ends, you know." Mrs. Weasley squeaked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

Honestly, Harry thought that neither himself nor Ron or Hermione did know what Mrs. Weasley was talking about. They chose to keep quiet, though, and let the awkward moment pass.

At 10:30, the group of five walked out to the apparation point, turned on the spot, and dissapeared.

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**I'm going an vacation for a week so I will upload more chapters when I get back**


	2. Insights Through Awkwardness

**Sorry for the delay- I got back from vacation a couple days ago but fanfiction wouldn't let me log on till today :(**

**I forgot to do this last chapter- Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**Thank you everyone for the great reviews!!!**

**Oh, and the restaurant in the story is a real restaurant in England, I found it online and tried to describe it vaguely from the pictures. I'm sorry if I didn't get the geography of London and Victoria right- I've never been to England.**

After they arrived at The Three Broomsticks- Harry, Ron, and Hermione parted ways with Ron's parents and made their way into London.

The walk to the restaurant wasn't a long one but Harry noticed that there were not many wizarding establishments around Palace Street. When the trio finally arrived at The Phoenix they realized that the restaurant was actually muggle- run.

"Oh," Hermione said, looking up at the sign over the doorway. "I thought it would be like The Three Broomsticks. The Phoenix sounded like it was in tribute to The Order of the Phoenix."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." Ron added.

Harry noticed that Ron appeared to be overly nervous. Hermione seemed to see this too and squeezed Ron's shoulder comfortingly.

"I've never really been in a place that was completely full of muggles." Ron admitted. Hermione's face softened and she looked at Ron with great tenderness.

Harry looked away from the pair and focused his attention on the menu posted near the restaurant's door. He was happy that Ron and Hermione had finally realized that they had feelings for each other, but wished that they didn't always have to make things so awkward. Though, truthfully, Harry figured that Ron and Hermione were awkward no matter if they were around people or not- it was just their nature.

The three friends entered The Phoenix after Hermione had convinced Ron that he was not going to do something stupid around the muggles. The restaurant appeared to be more of a cozy pub. It was dimly lit but felt inviting instead of foreboding.

Ron had spotted Professor McGonagall sitting at a table near the back and they made their way over.

"Potter. Granger. Weasley. Have a seat." Professor McGonagall commanded when she saw them approach. Harry was slightly confused as to why they were meeting in the muggle part of London as Professor McGonagall didn't seem to enjoy the company of muggles, but pulled a wooden chair up to the table anyway. There were several moments of silence while everyone subconsciously decided how the conversation should start. Finally, Hermione took control of the situation.

"Professor, why are we here?" Hermione asked bluntly, placing her ever-present beaded purse onto the table. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat slightly in a near perfect imitation of Dolores Umbridge.

"You are here, Miss Granger, because certain people, including the Minister of Magic, require your assistance." Professor McGonagall pulled a watch from her tartan dress pocket- she had worn muggle attire for their meeting- and checked the time.

"In about a hour," she said "we will go to the Ministry and speak with Kingsley Shacklebolt directly. Until then I thought we might all enjoy an early lunch as it has been awhile since there was time for such frivolities." Ron looked confused and Harry couldn't blame him. They had never known Professor McGonagall to share more than a conversation with a student, let alone a meal. Harry then remembered that they were students no longer and that Professor McGonagall was technically their equal- though he could never imagine calling her Minernva.

Hermione was practically beaming with excitement over having lunch with a professor and Harry could tell that Ron was trying- and failing- not to laugh.

McGonagall flagged down the waiter, a thin man in his thirties, who brought the group some menus. They perused their menus silently but Harry could tell that Hermione was itching to bombard McGonagall with questions.

Finally, the tension seemed to be too much for Hermione. She closed her menu and looked awkwardly around the restaurant before speaking.

"How are the repairs going, Professor?"

McGonagall stared at her menu for a few moments longer before looking up.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"How are the repairs going?" Hermione repeated.

"Oh, very well, thank you Miss Granger. The castle will never look and feel exactly the way it did, as you can understand, but we are making it habitable again. Your brothers," she indicated to Ron "Charlie and Bill, are helping out quite a bit actually." Ron smiled at this but said nothing.

"Are you going to be taking over as Headmistress?" Harry asked suddenly.

"No, I don't think so, Potter. I like my position now and I do not feel I am prepared to fill the shoes of Professor Dumbledore."

"Well, you would actually be filling Snape's shoes and he was a rubbish Headmaster." Ron said stupidly. Hermione glared at Ron and aimed a kick at his shin under the table. Ron winced but kept quiet.

McGonagall stiffened and resumed the staid demeanor that Harry had know for so long. "I suppose that is true Mr. Weasley, but it does not change my decision." Thankfully, the waiter chose that moment to make a reappearance so that he could take their orders.

Eventually, their food arrived and they ate in silence. Harry had more questions about the fate of Hogwarts but knew that it would not be wise to ask them at that moment.

**Don't worry you will know what the meeting is really about next chapter- though there will be more twists to the story later on. **

**Sorry about the short chapters, it's just easier for me to write them that way. **

**I will hopefully post chapter 3 in the next couple of days.**


	3. Send Your Secrets To The Wind

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**Yay, longest chapter yet!!!**

**I've been having problems with the review section. It says I have 7 reviews but it only shows 4 so if you post a review and it doesn't show up, just send me a message with your suggestions for the story. Try posting in the review section first though :) Thanks!!!**

After lunch, the group made their way towards the Ministry's visitor's entrance. All four crammed themselves into the telephone booth and Ron, who was the closest, punched in the numbers 6-2-4-4-2. The booth whirred to life and they began to descend through the London street. Harry was mildly surprised that the visitor's entrance would be up and running but quickly pushed the thought away as they reached the Atrium.

The first thing Harry noticed was that there was some pieces missing from the marble walls and floors. Harry wondered if any of the damage had been done when Ron, Hermione, and himself infiltrated the Ministry all those months ago.

The second thing Harry noticed was that the statue that usually occupied the center of the room was gone. In its place was a large wall that seemed to have something written on it.

Hermione gasped when she saw this and ran towards the wall, her shoes thudding dully against the marble floors. Professor McGonagall smiled sadly at Hermione.

Thoroughly confused, both Harry and Ron made their way to the wall. Hermione had reached the wall at that point and was running her hands down it, muttering to herself.

As he neared, Harry was able to read what was engraved at the top.

It said, "In Remembrance to Those Who Sacrificed Themselves for the Betterment of Wizard-kind"

Underneath the heading was a long list of names, each embossed in gold lettering. Hermione stopped running her hands down the memorial and stared at one set of names. Ron moved over towards her, his arm brushing hers. Harry suspected Ron wanted to comfort her somehow but wasn't completely comfortable in front of McGonagall.

Harry read what they were looking at. There was an elegant heading that said "The Battle of Hogwarts, 2 May 1998"

Ron had leaned forward and was running a finger along Fred's name. A pained expression crossed his face as he made an effort not to cry. Hermione had made no such effort and tears were running freely down her cheeks.

Harry moved away from Ron and Hermione, barely holding back his own tears. He looked at the rest of the names. There were no other headings. Instead, after each name there was a date. Harry searched the wall until his eyes found purchase on two names,

"James Potter, 31 October 1981

Lily Evans Potter, 31 October 1981"

Harry stared at those names for a long while, wishing with all his might that they would disappear, that his parents would come back to life now that- to use Peeves's words- "Voldy's gone moldy."

Harry would have stayed at that wall forever if McGonagall hadn't cleared her throat again. All three of them jumped and Harry knew why. The Ministry was the last place that they had seen Dolores Umbridge, had heard her annoying throat-clearing, and now they all thought that Umbridge had to decided to make a reappearance.

Harry recovered first and turned around to see Professor McGonagall looking at her pocket watch in a weary sort of way.

Glancing up, McGonagall said, "The Minister is waiting."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way towards the lift that would carry them up to the Minister's office.

Once they had arrived on the correct floor McGonagall walked over to a dainty looking witch who appeared to be Kingsley's secretary. McGonagall muttered a few words that Harry couldn't hear and the witch got up from her desk and knocked on the office doors. Harry could hear a deep, booming voice from inside the office say, "Come in."

The witch opened the door and motioned for the group to go inside.

The Minister's office was obviously meant to be opulent and grandiose. The room itself was huge and Harry could see a large fireplace that seemed to be made out of intricately carved jade. Harry had a feeling that most of the pomp and circumstance had been created by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister before Scrimigour and Thicknese.

Kingsley, on the other hand, seemed to have decorated very little. The chair he was sitting on was made of wood, a pillow balanced precariously between the chair back and Kingsley himself. Whether the simplicity in funishings was due to the fact that he was only temporarily the Minister of Magic- until an election could take place- or if it was just Kingsley's personal preference, Harry did not know.

Kingsley finally looked up from the piece of parchment he was writing on and gave them a warm smile.

"Hello Harry...Ron...Hermione. Good to see you Minerva!"

Looking thoroughly nervous, Hermione squeaked, "Hello, Mr. Minister!"

"Hermione, you can still call me Kingsley. Please have a seat." They each sat on stools that Kingsley had conjured.

Professor McGonagall dragged her stool towards the back corner of the room, making it clear that she was not truly part of the discussions about to take place. She cleared her throat again and Harry idly wondered if McGonagall was actually Umbridge under the influence of the Polyjuice Potion. Harry laughed out loud at this, trying to imagine the squat and girly Umbridge overpowering the stoic and fierce McGonagall to retreive a few hairs for the potion. Ron and Hermione both shot Harry questioning looks when they heard him laugh, obviously not understanding their friend's unexpected mirth.

Harry ducked his head slightly. Thankfully, Kingsley began to speak at that moment.

"Now, I know you must be wondering why you are here. I would like to get this over with as soon as possible so that you all can go back to rebuilding your lives. I understand how tired you must be after the events that have transpired. Coincidently, the events that have transpired are exactly why you are here."

Kingsley took a deep breath before continuing. "As you may have guessed, the Ministry has been working 'round the clock trying to catch the remaining Death Eaters and to restore the wizarding community to what it once was. This is where you three come in. As I understand it, Albus Dumbledore had left Harry a mission to complete. I also understand that both you- Ron and you- Hermione," he said pointing to each of them in turn, "chose to accompany Harry on this quest of sorts. It seems that on this mission, you all had a few close calls with Death Eaters and the like. If the Ministry is able to ascertain which Death Eaters you encountered on specific occasions, then we will have a better idea of their current whereabouts. I would also like to know how Voldemort was truly defeated because I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, that there was more to the Battle of Hogwarts then meets the eye. Therefore, I ask that you allow me to view your memories."

**Cliffhanger!!!! *cue dramatic music* You now know what the meeting is about but there are still twists and turns to come.**

**The next chapter will be from Harry's POV which is how I have been writing this story because it is the way the books are written. I might change up the POVs later on because third person limited is... well, limiting. **

**Should I stick with Harry's POV so the plot doesn't get overshadowed or mix it up? OPINIONS PLEASE!!!**


	4. The Wind Reveals Them To The Trees

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**Yay, two chapters in one day. This one might be a bit shorter but I wanted to end it on a cliffhanger so allowances had to be made.**

**Again- Thank you to all of those who have read the story and an extra Thanks to those who have taken the time to review!!!**

**Oh, and in case you were wondering- all of the chapter titles (except chapter 1) are parts of quotes that I thought described the content well. :)**

There were a few minutes of tense silence. Harry was taken aback and he could tell that Ron and Hermione were as well. Harry had figured that they would have been questioned by the Ministry eventually but didn't ever imagine that their actual memories would be needed.

Hermione turned to Kingsley, her eyes narrowed slightly. Harry had seen this look often before. It meant that she was preparing for an argument.

"Do we even have a choice?" Hermione implored at the Minister of Magic, losing all of her previous timidity.

Kingsley frowned a little at her vehemence, as if he thought that the three heros would jump at the chance to tell their harrowing tale. Harrowing it was, indeed.

He finally spoke, "Well, in a general sense I suppose you do have a choice. You could try to tell us which Death Eaters you saw but I fear that may not be enough. Recollections are clouded by pain and fear. Viewing memories however, pulls the emotions out and allows a clear take on the situation."

"That's logical, I guess." Hermione said.

Ron stared at her in disbelief. "How can you find logic in that!?"

This seemed to be the exact wrong thing to say.

"Honestly Ron," Hermione spat. "what Kingsley is saying makes sense! I don't like it any more than you do but that doesn't mean it's not true!"

Ron opened his mouth to shout something back, but Harry, in a desperate attempt to diffuse the situation spoke first.

"Are we allowed time to think about this?"

Kingsley, who was understandably distracted by the two teenagers gearing up for the verbal equivalent of WWⅢ, took a moment to respond. "Unfortunately there is a bit of a time constraint, as the longer we wait, the more time the Death Eaters have to disappear. I'm sorry Harry- we need to do this today."

Harry felt his stomach roil in anger. He and his friends had just saved the bloody world and now they were being treated like meaningless vessels of information. Their feelings not even considered!

Harry looked over at his two best friends who had calmed down enough to hear the last bit of what Kingsley had said and were now slumped on their stools with pained expressions on their faces.

Harry was obviously worried about his own reaction to reliving the events of the past year but feared more for his friends. Hermione might not be able to endure her trip to Malfoy Manor a second time and Ron would surely break down after watching his brother fall. Ron and Hermione were two of the strongest people Harry knew, they were sometimes even more stoic than the most grizzled members of the Order, but emotional strength only went so far. Some things could not be endured.

"Sir, I don't think I- I c- could go through that again." Ron said, surprising the other two. Kingsley probably thought Ron was referring to his brother but Harry knew that Ron was actually trying to protect his friends. Harry's heart went out to his quasi- brother, marveling at the loyalty that he- and Hermione- possesed.

Kingsley let out a sigh and began to try to compromise. "How about I take your memories and return them to you in a week, after the Unspeakables have had a chance to look at them"

Hermione shook her head vigorously. "No offense, but the Ministry is in shambles and I don't trust it enough to deal with something so important, unsupervised." She turned to Harry and Ron, "I think we are just going to have to do it."

Harry knew Hermione was right but that didn't make it any easier. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Hermione squared her shoulders and gave a curt nod. There was a hardness to her face that hadn't been present before the Battle. Harry turned to look at Ron and he too nodded, wearing an expression similar to Hermione's. With that it was settled.

"Alright," said Kingsley, getting up from his chair. "we have to go to the Department of Mysteries for this." He motioned for them to get up and began to lead them out of the office.

Professor McGonagall stopped the trio and whispered, "I'm proud of you three," wiping a tear from her left eye. She turned on her heel and followed after Kingsley.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, before running to catch up with their escort.

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The Department of Mysteries looked exactly as it did two years ago. The marks Hermione had put on the doors in the round room still remained, as if the department itself wore its war wounds with pride. The group approached one of the few unscathed doors and Kingsley pointed his wand at the knob. It began to glow like it was being held to a flame and then it turned, allowing the door to swing back.

Harry was the first of his friends to enter and became entranced with the object occupying the left-hand side of the room. A vast stone basin sat on what appeared to be a gigantic block of petrified wood.

It was a Pensieve.

This Pensieve seemed different then the one that sat in Dumbledore's old office and not just in size. The symbols etched around its rim seemed older somehow and the substance inside was a light gold instead of the customary silver. Ron and Hermione had caught up with Harry at that point and they too looked in awe at the magical object, Ron even muttering "Blimey!" under his breath. In fact, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were so focused on the left-hand side of the room that they failed to notice the collection of people to their right.

**Another cliffhanger... oh no!!! Don't worry the next chapter will reveal all the people at the meeting, though you could probably figure out some of them on your own.**

**I know I put this at the end of the last chapter but I thought I would add it here again. The next chapter will be from Harry's POV which is how I have been writing this story because it is the way the books are written. I might change up the POVs later on because third person limited is... well, limiting.**

**Should I stick with Harry's POV so the plot doesn't get overshadowed or mix it up? OPINIONS PLEASE!!!**


	5. A Quest Not Simply Abandoned

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**Sorry for the long time between updates- I've had tons of summer reading to do. For anyone else who has to read "Language In Thought And Action" by S. I. Hayakawa you have my deepest sympathies. **

**Without further ado... :)**

Harry heard someone cough on the other side of the room. He assumed it was Kingsley or Professor McGonagall trying to get his attention so that they could begin. When he turned around though, his eyes fell upon many faces, each looking expectingly back at him. Harry jumped towards the door in shock, pulling his wand from his pocket. This caused Ron and Hermione to turn around and do the same.

There- sitting in the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic- was the entire Weasley clan, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, and... the Dursleys.

Harry could feel his eyes bugging out of his head.

He shot a quick glance towards his friends and saw that Ron was mouthing wordlessly and Hermione had both hands covering the lower half of her face.

"Bloody hell! What are you all doing here!?" Harry practically squawked, gripping the wall as adrenaline pumped through his system. No one responded at first. They just glanced at each other nervously.

George, who had been the least talkative Weasley as of late, was actually the first to speak.

"We need to know." he said simply.

"Need to know what?" asked Ron, who had finally gained control of his vocal cords and was now addressing his brother.

"What happened for the nine months you three were gone!" Mrs. Weasley sobbed. "We need closure! We were so worried!" Mr. Weasley wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her cry into his robes. At Mrs. Weasley's words, Mr. and Mrs, Granger began to nod- agreeing with the need for closure.

Harry glanced at the other people around the room and noticed that Ginny had her jaw set tight and appeared to be grinding her teeth together. All in all it was a very menacing expression and Harry felt the urge to cower behind Ron and Hermione. He realized however, that hiding from a girl who was smaller than he was and unable to do magic might seem a bit silly.

With this bit of humor, Harry's brain began function again. He could understand the Grangers' and Weasleys' desire for answers but... the Dursleys? He hadn't seen them since they went into hiding. Why would they be here of all places? They hated magic and generally wanted nothing to do with Harry.

Though his mind was working again, it still wasn't completely up to par. Harry just pointed at his uncle and grunted, "Why?"

To his credit, Vernon Dursley only turned a mild shade of violet- nothing close to his normal puce complexion. "I bloody well don't know why!" he shouted. "Your Aunt, Cousin, and I were unceremoniously torn from our beds this morning by some of your lot and brought to this horrid place." Aunt Petunia nodded vigorously at this as Dudley shifted his hands to his massive backside(this was usual behavior for Dudley whenever he was in the presence of wizards).

"I would like to say," Uncle Vernon continued. "that the treatment we've gotten from your lot over the years has been very substandard, very substandard indeed! Especially considering I was forced to quit my job and go into hiding. After all this time we are finally allowed to return home but are still being pestered by this bunch!"

The Weasleys had all turned to glare at Uncle Vernon. Even Fleur, who up until that point had gone unnoticed, her blonde hair overshadowed by the mass of red.

Dudley had ducked around his father to survey the rest of the room and began drooling slightly when his eyes found the part-veela woman. Fleur glared even harder at the Dursleys, looking very haughty.

Uncle Vernon's rude behavior was the least of Harry's problems at the moment. Again, anger began to boil inside him. Some things, such as the horrors that Ron, Hermione, and himself had faced while on the run, were personal. He turned to Kingsley, hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"You tricked us! You said we were helping the Ministry- helping you! It was just some ploy, wasn't it!?"

Kingsley looked slightly abashed but kept his composure. "It wasn't a ploy. When I had Minerva contact you, I also had her pay a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I knew this would be an emotionally upsetting endeavor and felt it necessary to alert your families so they would not be blindsided. When I explained what we were attempting to do, your families were understandably interested."

Harry didn't particularly care about anyone else's interests at the moment- understandable or not. It may have been selfish, but he didn't want to share his experiences with anyone that didn't need to know. He didn't want any of _them_ to know, especially not Ginny. God, _definitely_ not Ginny. She would never be able to look at him again, knowing that he led her brother and best friend into danger- danger they barely survived. It was Harry's fault that Fred was dead and Ginny- all of the Weasleys actually- would know. They would hate him and Harry didn't know if he could take their hatred. They were the closest thing to family that he had.

Harry was now inundated with guilt and disgust at his own selfishness.

Hermione grabbed the sleeves of both his and Ron's jumpers and pulled them closer to the Pensieve. "What are we going to do?" she whispered frantically.

"Dunno." Ron said. "I kinda see their point, I mean we didn't really tell them much, did we? I would wonder too, but I dunno if I want them to see everything. There's some stuff I'm not exactly proud of..."

Harry knew Ron was afraid of what his family would say when they learned the he had left the hunt for the horcruxes for a time. Both Hermione and Harry had forgiven Ron- Hermione somewhat more begrudgingly- and understood why he did what he did. Forgiveness, it appeared, didn't lessen Ron's self hate. That was something he and Harry had in common.

Hermione gave Ron a sympathetic glance. "I might be able to get my parents to go home and the Dursleys shouldn't be too much of a problem. Your family is going to be more difficult though..."

"Couldn't we just back out altogether? They did lie to us, you know." Harry said, his voice laden with anger.

"No, we can't." Ron whispered. "We said we would do it. There are just too many lives at stake anyway."

Harry knew Ron was right but that didn't make the situation any better. He turned back to Kingsley.

"My Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin can go. They don't need closure, right?" Harry asked, glancing pointedly at Uncle Vernon.

"N-n-no." stammered Vernon Dursley. "The boy is no longer living with us- thats all the closure we need."

"Very well." Professor McGonagall said, speaking for the first time since they had entered the Department of Mysteries. "I will escort the Dursleys out so that we can proceed." The Dursleys stood up at McGonagall's words and began edging their way towards the exit.

"Mum... Dad... Go with them." Hermione pleaded desperately. "I understand that you need closure and I promise I will explain everything to you eventually, but you wont truly understand anything this way. There is just too much of the wizarding world that you haven't been exposed to."

Mr. Granger looked angrily at his daughter. "No, Hermione. This is the way it has to be. You wont tell us everything- you will try to protect us again. You have proven that already by magically tricking us into leaving the country. How can we ever fully trust you again?" Hermione began blinking furiously in an obvious attempt not to cry.

Harry was surprised by Mr. Granger's words. Hermione had led him and the Weasleys to believe that her parents had been understanding about the whole Australia debacle. Apparently that wasn't the case.

Ron had walked over to his family at that point and had begun trying to reason with them. Harry couldn't catch all of what as being said- the Weasleys were trying to keep their voices down- but he distinctly heard Mrs. Weasley say something about 'needing to know what Fred had died for'.

If anyone could play the familial guilt card, it was Mrs. Weasley.

Ron's ears turned bright red and he slumped back towards Harry and Hermione.

McGonagall was ushering the Dursleys out of the room but George stopped her by moving to stand in front of the door.

"They are going to stay." he said in a somber yet authoritative voice. "They need to understand that they were protected by the Order and they didn't have to be. We could have left them behind for the Death Eaters- they surely deserved it after the way they treated Harry. They should see what could have happened to them if 'our lot'," he used the appropriate air-quotes. "had just left them alone."

No one wanted to debate George these days for fear of setting him off- this, it seemed, applied to Professor McGonagall as well. She pushed the very unhappy Dursley family back towards their seats, Aunt Petunia shooting furtive glances at the door- angry she missed her chance to escape.

It seemed to Harry that they had just spent a good bit of time and effort accomplishing nothing. This so called favor that they were doing for the Ministry was turning out to be a hell of a lot more exasperating then it was supposed to be. Harry was ready to get the whole fiasco over with.

One question still nagged at the back of his mind, though.

"How are they even going to be able to see our memories? A Pensieve is for one or two people at most. Its not like we can cram all eighteen of us in there." he asked Kingsley.

"True, very true. This particular Pensieve however, is a bit different. We can project memories so that many people can view them at one time and with a fair bit of wand work we can combine different versions of the same memory so that we have a more complete picture of an event. This Pensieve is really only used by the full Wizengamot when they review their old cases and rulings- it's quite a special piece of magic."

Somehow, Kingsley's deep, sonorous voice was oddly pacifying and Harry found his anger abating quickly. In its place, determination formed. Harry, Ron, and Hermione would help the Ministry to the best of their abilities and their families would get what they wished for, even if what they wished for could hurt them.

Ron and Hermione seemed to be thinking along the same lines and no longer looked sad or angry. They too looked determined because this, like every other adventure they had been on, was a quest not simply abandoned.

**Don't worry. This isn't the end of the fic. I know it has a kind of a finality to it but there will be about two more chapters. **

**The next one will be a pretty long chapter and I'm going back to school so it might take a while to write. **

**Just bear with me!!!!**

**Thanks :P**


	6. Not Knowing How Blind That Was

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any part of the huge franchise.**

**A/N: I know- I suck. It has been way to long since an update, but hopefully I will be updating more frequently. This chapter is a little short, but i wanted to post something. so here ya go...**

Harry stepped towards Kingsley. His hands were shaking slightly, so he slipped them into the pockets of his trousers. It seemed foolish, really, to be nervous about a simple memory viewing after the horrors of the past year, but Harry was more worried about the large audience situated to his right.

Kingsley gave Harry a sympathetic look and pulled out his wand, "Don't worry. This wont hurt and I'm not going to force the memories from you. You just have to think of a memory and I will be able to pull it from your mind. Probably best to do it in chronological order."

"How far back should we start?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oh," said Kingsley, as if he had been under the impression that Harry would know exactly when to begin his tale. "I suppose we should start with the quest Dumbledore gave you."

Harry thought for a moment before deciding that he would start with the end of his fifth year, during the trouble at the Department of Mysteries, and jump to the most pertinent memories until they hit the events of the past year. "Okay," he said. "I'm ready."

It took Kingsley the better part of an hour to extract all of Harry's pertinent memories, which was understandable considering the epic quality of the adventure. Each memory now sat in a small glass phial, a little label adorning the front, marking the date each memory occurred.

During Harry's memory extraction, not a word was spoken by the captive audience at the far side of the room. The Dursleys seemed to be getting antsier by the minute and were fidgeting restlessly in their chairs. Ron and Hermione had gotten tired of standing and now sat against the wall closest to the door, their feet spread awkwardly in front of them as they tried to look anywhere except their families.

Finally, Harry was done.

He walked back to where his friends were and helped Hermione to her feet. She walked briskly over to Kingsley and began the long process of memory extraction. Ron gave Harry a questioning look as Harry slid down the wall to take Hermione's place. Harry nodded and a form of silent communication passed between the two friends; today was gonna suck.

Hermione's memories had taken less time to extract then Harry's and she, like Harry had done before, pulled Ron to his feet and slid down the wall.

Ron began the tedious task the Harry and Hermione had just completed but something was slightly different. Harry had not spent a great deal of time with Ron during the whole Lavender debacle and Ron was also absent from a good bit of the horcrux hunt which meant that his memories should be the quickest and easiest to retrieve. This apparently was not the case. Kingsley seemed to be having a bit of trouble. He would place the tip of his wand into Ron's bright red hair but when he pulled the wand away, no silvery memory clung to it. It took Kingsley three tries to capture the first memory and and if thing kept at the rate they were going, it would be Christmas before they would actually get to view the memories.

Harry glanced at Hermione and saw that she was gazing at Ron curiously, her head tilted to one side.

"What?" Harry asked in a whisper.

"I think I know what's wrong." Hermione said slowly, sounding unsure.

"Well..." Harry urged her on. Well as much as he could in a hushed voice.

"He probably doesn't want to release his more unpleasant memories, not that I blame him; I almost didn't give the memories from Malfoy Manor. Ron probably doesn't want his family to see..." she trailed off but Harry knew what she was thinking; they needed a way to tell Ron that his family would understand without actually alerting his family.

Harry got up under the pretense of stretching his legs. He rotated his shoulders and popped his knuckles to make it seem believable and then walked towards Ron and Kingsley. When he reached the pair, Kingsley looked up and gave a tiny shrug, only noticeable to Harry. Harry returned the shrug and whispered something in Ron's ear. Ron barked out a laugh that startled the silent group of people. Harry looked pointedly at Kingsley wand and Kingsley restarted the memory extraction.

When Harry returned to his original seat, Hermione nudged him conspicuously in the side; stealth was not really her strong suit.

"What did you say to him?"

"I'll tell you later." was Harry's non-committal response.

Hermione seemed perturbed but before she could say something, Ron had ambled back over and Kingsley was approaching the massive Pensieve.

"I suppose we shall begin then..." Kingsley said picking up the first three phials, one for each of the trio's memories. Harry was no longer really angry with Kingsley; he was just doing his job. In fact, Harry actually felt sorry for him. Between the Weasleys, Grangers, and Dursleys what would have been a normal day at the office had, in some respects, turned into one of those sappy Muggle programs that always play on sappy women's television networks.

Pulling himself out of his reverie, Harry watched as Kingsley poured the contents of he three phials into the swirling gold liquid. The effect of the silver memories on the gold Pensieve was quite mesmerizing and Harry felt as though he could watch the colors swirl all day long.

Kingsley stepped back a tick and tapped his wand against the basin, using what appeared to be a silent incantation to activate the Pensieve. All of a sudden, a projected image floated from within the basin's depths and unfurled to create an almost movie like display of The Ministry of Magic.

The "film" began and the audience sat, awestruck. McGonagall had moved her chair closer, the Weasleys had stopped leaning on each other so as to give the "screen" their full attention, Mr. And Mrs. Granger looked slightly frightened but were taking it in their stride, and even the Dursleys seemed mildly interested, their eyes darting around the room but landing on the moving images more and more frequently.

Harry finally turned his attention to the Pensieve. He watched with little emotion as he and five of his friends darted through the Ministry.

They were now in the Department of Mysteries.

**This fic is going to be longer than i thought it would be. Oh, well.**


	7. Ignorance In Action

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**A/N: Well, hello there. Sorry that it has taken me so long to update- there was a broken hard drive and lost files and much anger over said hard drive and files- but I'm back! **

**The bulk of the future chapters will have actual HP text in them. It starts from chapter 34 in the Order of The Phoenix and continues through Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. A lot of the scenes will be moments from the books so text use is rather unavoidable, but I will be adding new scenes that are still part of the trio's memories. These new scenes will basically be- as much as I hate to say it- like Missing Moment type stories. Also, I skip certain lines and sections of cannon and I write new, but still (hopefully) accurate descriptions because I want there to be a good percentage of original work in the story.**

**The memories are in _ITALICS_ and the present day reactions (the peanut gallery, if you will) are in REGULAR TEXT.**

_The circular room in the Department of Mysteries was horribly foreboding with its black walls and eerie blue lights. When Neville closed the door, the walls began to spin at a dizzying rate._

"_What was that about?" asked Ron._

"_I think it was to stop us from knowing which door we came in from." answered Ginny._

George leaned forward and said, while chuckling, "Wow, little sis. Moment of insight there, eh."

Ginny turned to glare at him. "Surprised you could recognize an insightful thought," she said, her words sugary, but dripping with venom at the same time. "Seeing as you don't have them too often."

George glared back. Ginny, seeming satisfied with her comeback, turned her attention back to the Pensieve, completely missing her mother's heated gaze.

_Harry was talking now. "Well, that doesn't matter now. We wont need to get out till we've found Sirius-"_

"_Don't go calling for him, though!" Hermione warned urgently, cutting off the end of Harry's sentence._

Harry rolled his eyes and glanced over at Ron, sharing a look that spoke worlds about their opinions on Hermione's worry-wart tendencies.

"_We should try a few doors." said Harry "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."_

_The first door they opened didn't reveal the right room, but the group stepped forward to investigate anyway. _

"_What're those things?" asked Ron, staring at a large tank and the things inside of it.  
_

"_Dunno." Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders. They really didn't have time for this._

"_Are they fish?" Ginny inquired. It seemed to be plausible. The iridescent shapes could definitely be fish._

"_Aquavirius maggots! Dad said the Ministry were breeding-" Luna said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, her radish earrings swinging back and forth._

"_No. They're brains." Hermione said as she approached the tank._

"_Brains?" Neville asked._

"_Yes," she replied definitively, but with a curious tone. "I wonder what they're doing with them?"_

_Harry began to feel uneasy and impatient watching the brains float blithely in the tank. "Let's get out of here. This isn't right, we need to try another door-"_

_More words were exchanged and the group shuffled back to the circular room._

_Luna was in the process of closing the door when Hermione stopped her. _

"_Flagrate!" she said and a fiery mark was burned into the door._

Mr. Granger turned and smiled at his daughter. Hermione smiled back tentatively. It was becoming clear to Harry that Hermione's love of knowledge and intelligence was inherited.

_The next room revealed a stone pit with stone ledges leading to the floor in the center._

"_Who's there?" Harry called out, being told to be careful by Hermione._

"_Sirius?" Harry said, staring at a veil that hung in the center of the pit._

"_Let's go." said Hermione, her eyes kind of wide._

"_Harry, let's go, okay?" she repeated, louder this time._

"_Okay" said Harry, still rooted in his spot. _

_He leaned closer the the veil and asked, "What are you saying?"_

_Hermione jumped down a few benches. "Nobody's talking, Harry!"_

_Harry obviously didn't believe her and walked even closer the veil. He thought it might have been Ron whispering, but Ron wasn't standing behind the veil._

"_Can't anyone else hear it?" Harry asked to the group at large._

"Merlin, I sound like a loon." Harry said, chuckling a bit.

"Well, Luna's about to agree with you in a moment.... so yeah you kind of do sound a bit crazy." joked Ron, who was laughing in earnest.

Ginny turned around in her seat, "Stop that, Ron! Luna is really nice and she helped out a ton with The DA last year!"

"Oh, I know Luna's great," said Ron, a bit meekly "but you have to admit she's completely mad sometimes. I mean really.... Wrackspurts?"

Ginny seemed to be heating up for an argument, but Bill cut her off. "Let's just watch, shall we?"

Ginny grumbled something unintelligible, but turned around all the same.

They had missed a bit of the memories during that sibling banter and now the group seemed to be in the room from Harry's dream.

_The room was admittedly beautiful. It had bright, sparkling lights and shiny clock face gleaming from every directions. The ticking sounds coming from the clocks were a bit annoying, though._

_Ginny had stopped at a beautiful bell jar, entranced by the scene playing within. Harry urged her forward, earning himself an angry retort. _

"_This is it! It's through here-" Harry said, excitedly. He turned around and saw that his five closest friends were behind him, supporting him, and ready to fight. Taking a deep breath, Harry pushed the door open. _

_The room inside was full of shelves stacked high with orbs. It was quite a daunting sight, really._

"_You said it was row ninety-seven." said Hermione. She had her patented 'about to take an exam face' on._

"_Yeah" Harry confirmed as the headed down the rows of shelves. He warned the others to keep their wands out; not that anyone would go wandless in the Department of Mysteries, but it was just a precaution. _

_They kept walking until Hermione shout-whispered that they had reached row ninety-seven._

_Harry began to panic when he did not see Sirius waiting for him at the end of the row. He tried to reason it out, "He's right down at the end. You can't see probably from here..." His voice had raised half an octave which was only noticed by Ron and Hermione who looked at each other and then at Harry in concern._

_They walked down the aisle, with Harry assuring them that Sirius was just a few feet away every few seconds._

"_Harry?" Hermione said softly._

"_What?" Harry shouted back, causing her to flinch as she always did when he yelled at her. _

"_I..... I don't think Sirius is here."_

"Funny," interjected Ron, obviously somewhat annoyed. "Hermione doesn't flinch when anyone else yells at her."

"That is true." Harry agreed. It always perplexed him as to why Hermione was always more timid in arguments that included him, when she was quick to verbally spar with Ginny or, especially Ron.

Both Ron and Harry turned towards Hermione and she let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well, Harry, I'm not saying you're unstable- you're definitely not- but you have to admit you do have your moments of rashness. When you start yelling it usually means that your emotions have gotten the better of you- which is completely understandable, of course- and that I need to chose my responses very carefully." Hermione finished her little speech by shrugging her shoulders slightly.

Harry looked at her curiously for a moment before saying, "Hmm... makes sense, I guess. Though, I suppose there are very few things you do that are illogical." A few of the Weasleys and both Mr. And Mrs. Granger laughed at that.

Ron still seemed a bit annoyed and Harry had a feeling it had to do with Ron's ridiculous notion that Hermione fancied Harry. Truthfully, there was probably not a whole lot anyone could do to assuage Ron's insecurities, it would just take time.

Once the group had settled down, they resumed watching the memories.

_Ron was pointing to a small orb that had Harry's named inscribed underneath it. _

"_What is it? What is your doing doing here?" Ron asked, his face pale, making his freckles stand out more. He walked down row ninety-seven a bit. "I'm not here. None of the rest of us are here..."_

_Harry reached out for the orb and Hermione shrieked at him not to touch it. _

_Neville agreed with her, but Harry was feeling a strong urge to pick it up. _

"Wait! Who are S.P.T. And A.P.W.B.D.?" asked Charlie, referring to the names on the plate below the sphere.

"Sibyll Patricia Trelawney and Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledore." replied Professor McGonagall from over by Kingsley. "One of the few real predictions Sibyll ever made."

There was quite a bit of humor in McGonagall's voice and everyone who had ever has Professor Trelawney as a teacher laughed.

_Harry had just pulled the orb from the shelf when a voice appeared from the darkness. "Very good, Potter. Now turn around nice and slow and give that to me."_

**A/N: Most of the chapters will cover more than one chapter from actual cannon, but I just wanted to post something so it's a bit shorter than most chapters will be. This fic- which was supposed to be about 10 chapters tops- is going to be epically long. Oh well, hope you don't mind. :) As always, thanks for reading!!!**


	8. A Shot In The Dark

**Hello! I'm back! Sorry for the long update time. I wont make vague and obviously fake excuses; I've just been a bit lazy. Life is always crazily hectic, but I still have at least some time to write and I've been ignoring that as of late. I hope to make amends and will definitely try to update a hell of a lot more often! :) Well... anyway. Thank You(!!!!!!!!!!! really excited, can't ya tell) for all the great reviews and a big(if completely virtual hug) to all of you who have stuck with the story despite my laziness. :P**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe and quotes from the book are taken directly from the later chapters of Order Of The Phoenix. No plagiarism is intended :)**

_Everyone stiffened simultaneously as thick shadows encroached upon the group and elongated to form the silhouettes of people. The shadows were holding wands and, as the tips brightened, Harry could see dark hoods were covering the ambushers' faces. Harry heard Ginny make a noise of shock and he couldn't blame her. This situation wasn't bound to end well._

"_To me, Potter." The figure repeated. The voice was easy enough to place, its sneer and haughty tone an older version of that of a certain blonde ferret. Harry didn't dare glance directly at his two best friends, but he could somewhat see them in his peripheral vision and could tell that, they too, recognized the commanding voice. _

_Lucius Malfoy stepped forward and extended a hand, waiting for the delicate glass orb to be handed over. Harry wasn't giving up that easily. "Where's Sirius?" he asked in the clearest and calmest voice he could muster up under the current circumstances._

_Laughter broke out in the shadows and a woman spoke in cruel and grating tones, "The Dark Lord always knows!" This made Harry's blood boil._

"_Always," responded Malfoy, as if he were repeating a simple fact to an idiot. "Now, give me the prophecy, Potter."_

"Well, didn't know he was going to die, now, did he?" Ron said happily and with a smug smile.

Mrs. Weasley turned around to glare at her son. "We do not joke about Vol- vol-volde-mort!" Some of her motherly edge was lost in the stuttering she did when trying to say Voldemort's name. He was gone for good, but people were still irrationally afraid.

"What!?" Ron said loudly. "He didn't know! He was downright surprised that we found the horcruxes. Damn good work on our part if I do say so myself, which I obviously do!"

Mrs. Weasley huffed loudly and turned away from Ron while everyone else tried to stifle giggles.

"_I want to know where Sirius is!" Harry repeated, louder this time; his voice echoing and reverberated throughout the massive hall._

_The woman who spoke before repeated Harry's words in a mocking tone. _

_Harry kept demanding to know where Sirius was and his pleas were met with more mocking._

_Ron began to move beside Harry, obviously irked by the female Death Eater's shrill voice. _

"_Don't do anything. Not yet—" Harry cautioned his friend. This got a rise out of the Death Eaters who laughed outright at Harry's authoritative demeanor. _

_Harry, Lucius, and the female Death Eater yelled at each other some more until it seemed as if Malfoy had had enough. _

"_It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter. Now give me the prophecy, or we will start using wands." Malfoy threatened. Harry knew this threat was halfhearted. If the Death Eaters attacked, they would destroy the very thing they wanted the most; the prophecy._

"_Go on, then." Harry taunted, moving his wand to point directly at the Death Eaters. The rest of the group had seemed to see through the threat too and also raised their wands._

_Malfoy tried to reason with the band of teenagers as much as one can reason while maintaining a haughty demeanor. "Hand over the prophecy and no one need get hurt." he said. _

_Harry knew this was an outright lie and he told Malfoy so. "Yeah, right! I give you this—prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?"_

_The female Death Eater, who it seemed had been itching to attack since the conversation started, lost what little self control she had left and tried to summon the orb. Harry guessed that something like this was coming and deflected the attack with a Shield Charm. _

_The woman seemed a bit surprised that Harry had any skill with a wand and prepared to strike again. Malfoy grabbed the woman before she could attack and shouted, "I TOLD YOU, NO!"_

_The woman broke free of Malfoy's grasp and pulled off her hood, as though she wanted Harry and his friends to see exactly how horrible she was. And she was horrible. The thin, waxy face of Bellatrix Lestrange peered at the group maliciously. _

"_You need more persuasion?" she said tauntingly. She smiled a gruesome smile. "Very well—take the smallest one. Let him watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it."_

It would stand to reason that the knowledge that a form of evil was dead and gone would make someone less afraid of said evil. Reason apparently had no place in the minds of the people gathered around the Pensieve.

Upon seeing Bellatrix Lestrange's face, many people in the room reacted badly. Mrs. Weasley's normally motherly face turned harsh. Ginny tilted her chin up slightly, as if showing defiance against even the image of the vicious killer. Hermione had pulled her knees in closer to her chest and kept glancing away from the Pensieve. And Charlie, who had known Tonks in school, looked infinitely sad as he watched her killer in action.

_The group moved to protect Ginny, who at the time was a thin and harmless looking fourteen year old. She wasn't actually harmless, but the Death Eaters didn't know that._

_Harry, who was honestly curious as to why an old orb was so important, asked what kind of prophecy it contained. Bellatrix rebuffed this question with another mocking quip, but Harry wasn't deterred. He asked again but more clearly, even saying Voldemort's name to get his point across. This made the Death Eaters very angry._

_Harry found that he very much enjoyed making them angry, even if it was a bit stupid, so he decided to make them REALLY angry. _

"_Did you know he's a half-blood too? Voldemort? Yeah, his mother was a witch, but his dad was a Muggle—or has he been telling you lot he's pureblood?" Harry could hear the Hermione, who had moved to stand right behind him, was obviously displeased with his tactic._

"What?" Harry asked, looking over at Hermione. "Didn't trust my award-winning people skills?"

Hermione looked at him sardonically. "Oh yes, I forgot about your award-winning people skills. Silly of me to be worried then. Should've just been pleased as punch that you were taunting the mass murderers."

Harry laughed at her sarcasm, but couldn't help silently agreeing that it wasn't one of his best ever plans.

_Bellatrix screeched and attacked again. This time, the spell was stopped by Malfoy, who deflected it towards a shelf. Some of the orbs shattered upon impact with the ground. Figures drifted up from the rubble and began to speak about—what sounded like—fated events and predictions. It was then that Harry understood why the orb couldn't be shattered; if it was broken, then the prophecy would be lost forever._

_Harry continued the earlier conversation with the Death Eaters, though this time not with the intent to provoke them. He had the beginnings of a plan circulating through his brain and needed some time to put the pieces into place. While talking with Malfoy, he felt around with the heel of his shoe until he could step on Hermione's foot._

"_What?" she asked, quietly as she could while trying to keep the sound of pain from her crushed toes out of her voice. _

_Harry ignored her for a moment, trying to find the best time to communicate his instructions without the Death Eaters overhearing. He got sidetracked, however, when Malfoy said that the secrets of his scar were in the Department of Mysteries. _

_For a moment, their current situation and the feeling of dread that had been bubbling in Harry's gut disappeared. He was almost elated that the answers he had wanted his entire life could be in the same building as him._

_The elation was short lived though, as Hermione had grown impatient and whispered "What?" again and with more urgency. The Death Eaters were obviously amused by his provincial knowledge of his own history and began to laugh in his face. While this would normally bother Harry, he ignored them and used the echoing sound of their guffaws to tell Hermione to smash the shelves on his orders._

_Harry knew that she would pass the command on to the rest of the group and focused his thoughts on finding the perfect moment to put his plan into action. He still responded every once in a while to Malfoy's tirade, but it was with somewhat feigned interest. _

_Of course, Harry wanted to know the answers to the mysteries that had plagued him from childhood, but he also knew he would never find anything out if he couldn't make it through this situation alive._

_Harry felt that he should get one more jibe in before executing the plan. "Get it himself? The Dark Lord, walk into the Ministry of Magic, when they are so sweetly ignoring his return? The Dark Lord, reveal himself to the Aurors, when at the moment they are wasting their time on my dear cousin?" Belatrix said in a superior tone, responding to one of Harry's previous questions._

_Harry looked at Bellatrix just as smugly. "So he's got you doing his dirty work for him, has he? Like he tried to get Sturgis to steal it—and Bode?"_

_Malfoy began to reply and had uttered a sentence or two when Harry gave the signal and shouted a loud and clear, "NOW!"_

_All six teenagers shot a Reductor Curse at the self nearest them._

"Smart." Kingsley said in praise of the group's quick thinking. "Risky as anything, but pretty smart. Excellent Aurors you lot would make."

Harry and Ron grinned broadly while the two girls gave small, quick smiles. It was quite obvious that the option of becoming Aurors was not high on their lists of life choices.

_The shelves broke and the orbs cracked. The entire mess began to rain down on the students and Death Eaters alike and both groups went careening out of the way. Hermione was closest to him, so he grabbed her and made a mad dash out of the aisle, praying that everyone else was doing the same._

_He saw the rest of the group run past him, shouting half formed encouragements to each other and angry retorts at the Death Eaters._

_Halfway down the aisle, someone grabbed onto him. Before he was able to react, Hermione blasted the attacker back with a Stunning Spell. They all ran harder towards the door with the bell jar._

_Hermione was the last one in and promptly sealed the door. Harry looked around, but realized he couldn't see Ron, Ginny, or Luna anywhere. _

"_Where—where are the others?" he asked warily._

"_They must have gone the wrong way!" Hermione replied, her eyes darting around the room as if Ron, Ginny, and Luna were just hiding from them as part of some prank._

_Both Harry and Hermione began to freak out a bit, silently begging for their friends to be okay. They were lost in their own worlds of worry until clarity came from and unlikely source. _

_Neville lifted his arms and extended his open palms in a gesture obviously meant to make them be quiet. "Listen!" he said, his head turned slightly to the side._

_All three of them gathered around the door, listening for their attackers approach. Harry could hear Malfoy giving slightly panicked orders, "Leave Nott, leave him, I say, the Dark Lord will not care for Nott's injuries as much as losing the prophecy—Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary—Bellatrix, Rudolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right—Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead—Macnair and Avery through here—Rookwood, over there—Mulciber, come with me!" It pleased Harry more than it probably should that the haughty Death Eater was flustered by their impromptu and somewhat sloppy attack._

"_What do we do?" Hermione asked when they stepped a few paces back from the door._

"_Well, we don't stand here waiting for them to find us, for a start. Let's get away from this door..." Harry replied, dragging Neville and Hermione behind him. They would find Ron, Ginny, and Luna later, but for the moment they just had to run._

_**Wowza this story is going to take forever to finish; perhaps that's a good thing though. The Department Of Mysteries battle is a crucial part in the grand scheme of HP, so I have to put all of it in there. I promise the reactions from the family will get more interesting as the story and its complicatedness(I've deemed this to be a word, just go with it) is built up. **_


	9. A Motley Crue

**Disclaimer- I do not own anything in the HP universe.**

**I know, it was a week later then I said it was going to be. I'm a liar and I apologize. :( Well, without further ado....**

_Harry could hear a loud thump and one of the Death Eaters unlocking the sealed door behind the group. Neville motioned towards a cluster of desks ahead and they jumped underneath them._

"_They might've run straight through to the hall." suggested one of the Death Eaters, although Harry, Hermione, and Neville couldn't tell which one as they could only see swishes of black robes._

"_Check under the desks." another of the blacked robed villains ordered._

_Harry, not knowing if he would get another opportunity, stunned the nearest Death Eater from underneath the desk. As the injured wizard fell aside, his cohort aimed a killing curse at Hermione. Harry lunged at the Death Eater just in time. Unfortunately, Neville shot a badly aimed Expelliarmus charm and both Harry's and the Death Eater's wands went careening out of the way._

_The two raced for their wands, which had sailed into the next room, as Neville took the offensive position again. "Get out of the way, Harry!" he yelled, loudly, "STUPEFY!"_

_The curse missed the Death Eater and accidently distracted Harry long enough for the Death Eater to get his wand._

_Hermione burst into the room. "STUPEFY!" she shouted. The Death Eater was thrown backward and his head sunk through the glass of a nearby bell jar. Hermione then summoned Harry's wand and tossed it to him. _

_The three prepared to leave the room and find the others when Neville made them stop. "Look out!" he said. Harry and Hermione turned to see the Death Eater's head shrink and warp into a child-like form and then grow back to full size again. _

_The process repeated and Hermione stood, openmouthed muttering about the jar containing time. It was a ludicrous idea, but it almost seemed plausible while watching a grown man's shrink and expand._

"An abomination!" muttered Mr. Dursley.

"Sorry, Uncle Vernon, I didn't hear you. What were you saying?" Harry asked tauntingly, knowing full well that his uncle was already uncomfortable in a room full of wizards and really didn't want to be singled out.

"I said that it was an abomination!" Uncle Dursley replied, apparently making the most out a awkward situation. "What you people do to the structure of nature is horrific. You cannot just go playing with time like that; it must be against the law!"

Harry shared an amused look with Ron, both of them barely containing their laughter. They watched as Uncle Vernon's face went from it's normal somewhat-ruddy complexion (if you were that large, your face would be a bit ruddy too), to a strong puce color. His face continued to darkened when he realized no one was really listening to his ramblings.

Harry was almost afraid that his uncle would actually explode, but Aunt Petunia grasped Uncle Vernon's arm and whispered something- probably a warning about keeping up appearances- in his ear. Uncle Vernon's color lightened a bit, although it was easy to tell that he was still pretty angry.

_There was commotion in the next room and Harry began moving towards it shouting for Ron, Luna, and Ginny. Hermione pulled him away from the baby-headed Death Eater's swiping arm. Harry prepared to stun him, but again Hermione stopped him. "You can't hurt a baby!"_

"Really, Hermione?" Ron said, laughing.

"Yes, really!" she replied haughtly. "It's mean!"

"He's not actually a baby." Ginny said, "He hit Pavarti and Dean with Body-Bind Curses during the Hogwarts battle, so as far as I'm concerned, he deserved whatever he got."

"I doesn't matter what he did later on. At the moment, he had the appearance of a child. Hurting children just puts us on the same level as the Death Eaters." injected Percy in his usual pompous manner.

"Yes, because you're a paragon of morality." Bill snapped sarcastically. It was obvious that there was still a lot angst to deal with regarding Percy's sudden return to the Weasley clan.

Mr. Weasley's face became uncharacteristically stern. "Stop it. All of you." he commanded in an even tone, surprising his children who had always known him to be the quieter of their parents. Stress was making everyone act a bit strange.

_More Death Eaters were coming so Harry ignored the baby-headed assailant, grabbed Hermione's arm, and pushed Neville towards the open door. _

_They made it safely through the door, but their relief was short lived. As Hermione tried to seal the door shut, Death Eaters burst into the room, shouting a spell that sent Harry, Neville, and Hermione flying backwards. _

_Harry was slammed into the far wall, spots straining his vision, Hermione crashed into shelves lined with thick books and was buried underneath a stack, and Neville disappeared completely, presumably stuck behind one of the many pieces on office furniture crammed into the smallish room._

_Hermione, who seemed to have suffered the least damage, had pulled herself from the books and silenced one of the the Death Eater in order to keep him from telling Malfoy where they were. _

_Harry recovered soon after and leapt up as quickly as he could. "Petrificus Totalus!" he commanded, incapacitating the other aggressor._

"_Well, done Ha—" Hermione began, but she was cut off as the first Death Eater shot a curse out of his wand. A purple light hit Hermione across the chest and she collapsed to the ground._

_Harry did a double take, to make sure he wasn't imagining what he had seen, before running towards his friend, screaming her name._

"Bloody hell!" Mr. Granger cursed, while Mrs. Granger's hands flew to her mouth and tears began to pool in her eyes. "My poor baby." she cried.

"Mum... Dad, really I'm fine. It wasn't so bad. Just a week or so in the hospital wing at Hogwarts." Hermione said, trying to reassure her mother but looking panicked. Harry couldn't blame her. If her parents were freaked out now, then they would have a litter of kneazles when they saw some of the trio's memories from the horcrux hunt.

"A week. A WEEK! That's a week too long. You never told us you got hurt." exclaimed Mr. Granger.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry about something that had already happened. It just wasn't logical." his daughter responded.

"Hermione, we'll discuss this later, but not everything is logical when you're a parent. It just doesn't work like that." Mr. Granger put a comforting arm around his wife and turned towards the Pensieve, cutting off the conversation.

_Neville was finally able to extract himself from behind the desks and began to make his way towards Harry and Hermione. _

_As he emerged from underneath the last desk, however, the Death Eater spun around and hit him in the face. Neville's wand was destroyed in the blow and his nose was broken._

"Ohh! Neville!" Ginny said, cringing. "I saw his nose after, but its worse when you actually see it happen."

"Yeah, poor bloke." said Ron "He really manned up in the last few years, though. If he were still the same as he was when we were first years, he would be wetting himself in the corner."

Mrs. Weasley glared at her son. "That's not a nice thing to say, even if it is true. Neville has grown into quite the young man. He really has made his grandmother proud."

_Harry prepared to strike at the Death Eater when the man pulled his mask from his face. _

_The Death Eater looked glaringly familiar and Harry realized that he was staring at Antonin Dolohov, the man responsible for Mrs. Weasley's brother's deaths._

Harry glanced over at the Weasleys to see Mr. Weasley pull Mrs. Weasley closer. The latter of the two said nothing, but her face was contorted into an expression similar to the one she wore while fighting Bellatrix Lestrange.

_A slow smirk grew on Dolohov's face and through pantomimed gestures, it became clear that Dolohov would hit Harry with the same curse he used on Hermione if the prophecy weren't handed over quickly._

_Harry began a fruitless argument with Dolohov, as the Death Eater couldn't actually say anything in return. _

_Harry's hand was on Hermione's shoulder and he was comforted by the fact that it was still quite warm. A small sliver of doubt wiggled its way into his mind as he remembered that Cedric's body was still warm even after they had arrived back at the maze entrance, quite a while after he was actually killed._

_Neville was sitting up again, obviously trying to staunch the large amounts of blood that had gathered around his nose. "Whaddever you do, Harry, don'd gib it to him." he wheezed through his hands._

_Dolohov was startled when his baby-headed counterpart came flailing into the room. Harry shot a Body-Bind Curse at Dolohov and watched him fall to the ground face-first._

_Harry and Neville immediately flocked to their friend and began trying to wake her up. Harry kept calling to her and shaking her shoulders. "Whaddid he do to her?" Neville asked._

"_I dunno..." replied Harry, who was beginning to panic._

"_Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is." Neville said triumphantly, holding up Hermione's wrist._

_Harry sighed in relief, but went on alert again. He didn't hear any more people approaching, but they had to make the most of the lull in fighting._

"_Neville, we're not far from the exit. We're right next to that circular room... If we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift... Then you could find someone... Raise the alarm..._

"_And whad are you going do do?" Neville asked, obviously skeptical._

"_I've got to find the others." replied Harry._

"_Well, I'b going do find dem wid you." said Neville._

"_But Hermione—"_

"_We'll dake her wid us. I'll carry her—you're bedder at fighding dem dan I ab—"_

_Harry processed the plan and tried to find alternatives, but finally just gave up and helped situate Hermione on Neville's shoulder; being careful not to hit his broken nose._

_They began to step over Dolohov when Harry made the stop. "Wait, you'd better take this." he said, passing Hermione's wand to Neville._

_Neville made what was probably a sad sound, though it was hard to tell because of the broken nose, and took the wand._

"_My gran's going do kill be," he said morosely. "dat was by dad's old wand..."_

**Thought I would end the chapter on a slightly humorous note. Hope you liked it! :) Reviews are appreciated, but obviously not necessary!**


	10. A New Perspective

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the HP universe.**

**A new update! "So soon?" you ask, obviously shocked. Yes! I'm sorry it took so long for the last update, so here is a present of sorts. This chapter is a bit shorter and an experiment. It's from another character's POV because Harry isn't actually present in the scenes. I want to add memories that weren't actually in the novels because I think the story might get kind of stale and predictable otherwise. Thanks for all the reviews I've received! They help me guide the story and are really, really appreciated. :)**

_Ron, Luna, and Ginny whipped around the corner of the last aisle in the hall of prophecies and burst into a dark room where they could just make out the shadows of large floating objects. As soon as they stepped closer to the objects, the floor seemed to drop out from underneath them and the darkness intensified._

"_Merlin!" Ginny cursed, her arms poised to break her fall if need be, "Where did the floor go?"_

"_I can't move forward." said Luna, a bit of awe and interest lacing her voice._

"_This feels weirder than when I ate those Amortentia-spiked chocolates." Ron said, trying (and failing) to flip in mid-air._

_Suddenly, the door the group had run through reopened. Two Death Eaters made their way into the room, which regained its floor as they stepped through the threshold._

_Ginny, Ron, and Luna crashed to the newly reformed ground and began to crawl away from the fast approaching attackers._

"_We have to get going." Ron said to his sister and Luna as he got up and bolted farther into the room. _

"_What about Harry, Neville, and Hermione?" Luna asked, running behind the Weasleys._

"_We'll have to find them soon, but we have to get some distance between us and the Death Eaters." replied Ginny._

_The Weasleys and Luna ran through the maze of floating objects, which they soon realized were smaller replicas of planets and moons. Two sets of footsteps echoed loudly behind them. Apparently the door must have reopened because Ron, Ginny, and Luna were thrown back into the floating abyss. _

_Ron felt like they hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few minutes. He was grateful that the Death Eaters were also suspended and unable to pursue them, but he wondered how Harry and Hermione were doing. He was worried about Neville too, of course, but he missed his best friends and was used to being with them in times of danger. Ron didn't have long to ponder though, as the door made a distinctive click as it opened again and the floor reformed. There were now four Death Eaters pursuing them._

_Ron fell hard onto his right side, his face hitting the cold marble. Ginny and Luna grabbed his arms and dragged him forward until he began running on his own. Ron could taste the coppery tang of blood pooling behind what must be a broken lip. There was no time to think about it though._

"Oh, Ronniekins!" Mrs. Weasley said, sounding very sad.

Ron's ears blazed bright red at the use of his childhood nickname and his brothers snickered in the background.

"_We need to find an exit." Ginny said, as they ran blindly forward._

"_Let's split up for a second; see if one of us can find an exit." Ron said, "Ginny, you and Luna go right and I'll go left. You lot stick together though."_

_Luna and Ginny nodded in agreement and veered right, ducking behind a floating object Ron thought vaguely looked like Neptune or Uranus._

_Ron kept running and the sounds of the footsteps diminished, whether from distance or fewer people following him. He began to feel better about his chances of finding and exit until a bright flash of red light struck a planet next to him. Ron was blasted sideways and had to roll out of the way of another stunner._

"_I saw him! He's this way!" one of the Death Eaters called to another. _

_Ron got up and ran as fast as he could past a planet so large that it had to be Jupiter. "They're in order!" he whispered loudly. It was true, the planets seemed to be in order of their actual place in the solar system. That meant that Ginny and Luna were probably going to reach the end of the room soon. Maybe that's where the door would be. _

_Ron spun around and sprinted in the other direction, skirting behind a large chunk of what used to be Saturn's rings to avoid being seen by the Death Eaters who were tailing him. There was an outbreak of shouting ahead. A large blast of sound ricocheted around the room of planets followed by a loud groan of pain. Ron picked up the pace of his running and hurried towards the sound. _

"Ohh! Who was that?" Dudley asked, cringing away from the Pensieve in disgust. Aunt Petunia put a bony arm around her blubbery son, pulling him closer and quietly telling him not to talk.

"It was me." Ginny said. "It really hurt, too!"

"Wow, little sis. Not so tough, are you?" Charlie taunted, a smirk forming across his face.

"Fine." Ginny said, obviously a little angry that anyone was calling her weak. "Why don't I break your ankle with a stunner and see how you take it."

Charlie didn't seem to have a response to this and just kept on smirking.

_He was intercepted, however, by a Death Eater. The Death Eater shot a silent curse at Ron, who dodged it neatly. "Stupefy!" he shouted, his stunner missing his target and just barely grazing the tented top of the Death Eater's hood._

_The Death Eater repeated his previous spell and Ron was unable to get out of the way in time. A jet of yellow light hit his left shin and his legs buckled underneath him. Satisfied that Ron was temporarily incapacitated, the Death Eater turned around and sprinted back towards the hall of prophesies. _

_A tingling sensation began in Ron's shin and spread to his toes rather quickly. He began to giggle a bit, as it felt like feathers were constantly tickling his lower leg. It was actually quite an unpleasant feeling, but it made everything around him seem really funny. The blown up bits of planet: funny. The blood filling his mouth and dribbling down his chin: funny. Ron sat for a moment laughing madly at everything in sight._

_He could have sat in that spot all day and giggled at the things around him, but Ron felt a sliver of worry in the back of his mind. He remembered the loud bang and groan of pain from earlier and his mind cleared a little bit. The tingling feeling had now moved up to the knee of his left leg and onto the toes of his right foot, but he was able to stand up anyway. Ron walked and sometimes limped towards the spot where he had heard those sounds before. He was giggling the entire way, making him look a bit more than mad._

_Finally, he could see two huddled shapes hiding behind the remnants of what must have been Pluto. One of the figures looked in his direction. _

"_Ron! Over here!" whispered the figure, who turned out to be Luna. When she saw his condition, she put her hands to her mouth. "Oh my! What happened to you?" she gestured to his limp and new found fascination with laughing. "Was it Wrackspurts? They do make your head all fuzzy, but I've never seen an infestation this bad!"_

"_Wrackspurts? Ha ha ha! Luna, you're really a riot, aren't you?" Ron sputtered out between guffaws._

"_Ginny's been hurt, Ron. There's an exit only a bit away, but we didn't want to leave without you." Luna explained, ignoring Ron's interjection._

_The tingling had spread up to Ron's waist and he was having trouble staying upright._

_Luna, sensing that he wasn't listening, or perhaps couldn't, grabbed his arm and pulled him over to Ginny._

"_Ron's here, Ginny. We can go now." Luna said._

"_I don't know if I can get up." Ginny admitted, teeth clenched in pain._

"_C'mon I'll help you. Just keep an eye on Ron. I think a bunch of Wrackspurts got him." Ginny nodded vaguely and let herself be helped by Luna. _

_The group tottered towards the exit, stopping periodically to check for signs of Death Eaters and to keep Ron from wandering away. The Death Eaters seemed to have moved on now that they had injured, or at least slowed down, everyone in the room._

_Ron was holding onto Luna's sleeve to keep from falling to the ground laughing. Luna, unfortunately, tripped right before they reached the door and brought the whole party crashing through the threshold, fighting to stay upright. _

_They found themselves in the circular room full of doors, across from the rest of their friends._

**So? Thoughts? Praises? Criticisms? I normally don't ask for reviews outright, but please let me know what you think about the change in POV. Gracias!**


	11. Hope To The Rescue

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the HP universe.**

**So... I'm back. I sincerely apologize for my lack of FanFiction activity. I know I keep apologizing for the long delays, but hopefully the long summer before college will give me time to write more. **

_Harry and Neville moved out of the room with the baby-headed Death Eater and into the room of doors. The walls spun again and Harry realized that the marks Hermione had made on the doorway had disappeared._

"_So which way d'you reckon—?" Harry began, just as Ron, Ginny, and Luna burst through one of the doors. _

_Harry's initial relief at seeing his friends faded quickly as he saw the condition they were in. Ron was giggling madly and almost rolling on the floor. Ginny was sitting on the ground, obviously in severe pain; an unusual expression for Ginny. Luna, however, looked basically the same as always. There was a small amount of fear present in her large blue eyes, but she seemed uninjured._

"Quite a Motley Crue we were there." Hermione said, almost laughing at the absurdity of the situation displayed in the Pensieve.

"Motley what?" Bill replied, his confused look mirrored on all of the Weasley's faces.

"Oh, for God's sake! It's a band! A horrid, abomination of music, but still something a **normal** person should know about." Uncle Vernon blurted out, probably before he realized he was going to say anything. A glare from Professor McGonagall made him shrink back in his seat.

"I quite like them, actually." Harry said, causing Hermione and her parents, who obviously knew the famous band, to laugh.

_Harry dashed towards Ron. "Harry," Ron giggled, "The you are...Ha ha ha... You look funny, Harry... You're all messed up..."_

"_Ginny?" Harry asked, "What happened?" Ginny couldn't respond and clutched her ankle. _

_Luna told Harry that Ginny's ankle was probably broken and began to recount their part of the adventure. "Four of them chased us into a dark room full of planets, it was a very odd place, some of the time we were just floating in the dark—"_

"_Harry, we saw Uranus up close! Get it, Harry? We saw Uranus—ha ha ha—" Ron interjected._

"One of your finest moments of humor, I think." said George, laughing at his brother's lame joke. "It's not everyday that you get to see your brother act like a complete idiot—oh wait! Yes, it is everyday that I get to see that. Never mind, silly of me." George smiled evilly at Ron. Ron, it seemed, was doing his best to glare back, but Harry could tell that Ron was just relieved that his brother was making jokes again, even if it was a his expense.

_Luna cut Ron off and finished describing how Ginny hurt her ankle._

"_And what about Ron?" Harry asked cautiously. Ron was still laughing madly and jumping around._

"_I don't know what they hit him with, but he's gone a bit funny, I could hardly get him along at all..." Luna finished quietly. _

_Ron pulled Harry down to him and whispered something in his ear. Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes and pulled Ron to his feet. _

"Ron, what did you say to Harry there?" asked Ginny.

"Hell, if I know." Ron responded, "Can't say I remember much of this. The brains—sure, they were pretty memorable, but not really the rest of it."

"Brains?" Mrs. Granger exclaimed, shuddering.

"Oh, yeah." said Ron almost cheerfully, "They were great, you'll see."

"_We've got to get out of here." he said, "Luna, can you help Ginny?"_

_Luna nodded and pulled her friend forward. Ginny fought against Luna, claiming that her injury was minor and she could walk on her own. This was quickly disproved as she fell back to the ground before taking a single step._

"Stubborn, git." George muttered under his breath.

His sister swung around in her seat. "Yes, because you wouldn't do the same thing!"

"I wouldn't! I don;t have anything to prove!" retorted George.

"Both of you, stop it!" Charlie chimed in.

_Harry and Luna began to pull the Weasley's forward when Bellatrix Lestrange burst forth from the exit door._

"_There they are!" she screamed, pointing at the group and sending Death Eaters scrambling towards them._

_The group just managed to fling themselves through a doorway and seal it before the Death Eater caught up to them._

_They heard a mumble of voices until a male voice broke free of the din, "It doesn't matter! There are other ways in—WE'VE GOT THEM, THEY'RE HERE!"_

_Harry didn't know what the man was talking about until he spun around and realized that they were in the brain room again, surrounded by doors. Harry called out to Neville and Luna, the only other two members of the group that were in somewhat good health, gesturing wildly at the doors in an obvious signal for them to start sealing the room._

_The three leapt over tables and jars, sealing doors as they went. Harry thought they were going to be in the clear, at least for the moment until he heard Luna scream and get blasted back from a doorway._

_Bellatrix lurched forward, yelling for her companions to capture Harry. Ron, unfortunately, decided to stand up at that moment to get a closer look at the brains floating in the tank they had seen earlier._

"Ah. See, this I remember." Ron said in a defeated sort of voice, "It's always so nice to see your mistakes displayed on a big screen."

Harry turned to see Hermione patting Ron's shoulder sympathetically and reached around her to do the same.

_Harry shouted to Ron to get back down on the ground, but Ron's addled mind didn't seem to be able to process this. Instead, he pulled his wand from his pocket and tried to summon the brains. Belatedly, Harry realized that he should have confiscated Ron's wand after he was hit the first time._

_Everyone in the room, including the Death Eaters, turned to watch what happened next. The brain sailed towards Ron, its tentacles flapping around him. Ron didn't seem to be bothered by this at first, happily chatting about the brain's squishy texture. Soon, though, Ron's happiness began to degrade into all out panic as the brain began to strangle his body._

"_Harry, look what's happen—no—no, I don't like it—no, stop—STOP—" Ron screamed._

"_Diffindo," Harry Yelled, waving his wand wildly in an attempt to sever the tentacles hurting his friend._

"_Harry, it'll suffocate him!" Ginny yelled from her spot on the floor, unable to move very much. She turned just in time to see a stunner aimed at her head. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to block it in time and it hit her in the face, knocking her unconscious._

Mrs. Weasley jumped in her seat and gasped. Ginny leaned forward and grabbed her mother's hand. "It's fine, I'm fine." she said quietly.

"Oh, I know, dear. You'll understand when you have children someday." Mrs. Weasley replied, patting Ginny's hand.

_Neville jumped forward, launching stunners at the offending Death Eater. It was not use, however, as his broken nose made it impossible to pronounce the spells correctly._

_Harry looked up from Ron to see Bellatrix making a mad dash for him and the prophecy. He didn't want to leave Ron in the state he was in, but it seems as if he would have no choice. He had to draw the Death Eaters away from the others so Neville could bee free to get help._

_He burst through a door into the next room. The Death Eaters seemed to be following him, filling him with a sense of relief. This feeling didn't last long, however, as the floor seem to disappear after a few steps and Harry began to bounce down what seemed to be a set of very hard steps._

"My side still hurts sometimes from that." mumbled Harry, earning smiles from Ron and Hermione, the only two who could hear him.

_Harry flopped down at the bottom of the pit, stars spinning in his head. He could hear the Death Eaters approaching him from all sides and Harry forced himself to stand up._

_Harry backed away from the Death Eaters until he was forced to climb onto a large stone dais in the middle of the pit._

_One of the Death Eaters stepped forward and Harry could tell it was Lucius Malfoy before he even pulled his mask off. The drawling voice was unmistakable. He raised his wand, "Potter, your race is run. Now hand me the prophecy like a good boy..."_

"_Let—let the others go, and I'll give it to you!" Harry responded, trying to bargain his way out of the situation. He was outnumbered and outwitted, the odds weren't that great._

_Malfoy and his other Death Eaters laughed manically. Malfoy took another step forward and began to taunt Harry. Just as he was saying that Harry was completely alone, Neville could be heard shouting, "He's dot alone! He's still god be!" Harry chanced a glance back. Neville was bounding towards the dais, borrowed wand at the ready. Too bad he couldn't properly enunciate the spells due to his broken nose. _

"_Oh, no!" Harry muttered under his breath. Out loud he said, "Neville—no—go back to Ron—"_

_Neville didn't seem to want to listen. "STUBEFY! STUBEFY! STUBE—" Neville was grabbed at that point, although, Harry was just thankful the Death Eater had handled him physically instead of knocking out his friend with dark magic._

_Malfoy stepped towards Neville, asking if he was part of the Longbottom family._

"_Longbottom? Why, I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy..." Bellatrix trilled with an evil smile._

_Neville fought against his captor, trying desperately to hurt the woman in front of him._

_Bellatrix took another step forward. "Let's see how long Longbottom lasts before he cracks like his parents...Usless Potter wants to give us the prophecy—"_

_Harry's stomach shot up to his throat. This is what he didn't want. Ron and Hermione always knew what they were getting themselves into and went for it anyway. Ginny, Luna, and Neville, no matter how brave they were, weren't aware of what they faced. _

_Neville was yelling at Harry to not give into Bellatrix's demands. Harry was going to listen to him too, until Bellatrix turned her wand on Neville, yelling out the Cruciatus Curse. The sound of Neville's scream was horrible and a sound that Harry would remember until the day he died. Neville had curled up in the air and the Death Eater dropped his twitching form._

"Oh, Neville!" exclaimed Ginny, "I didn't know. He never said anything."

"Bellatrix Lestrange does have a certain fondness for the Cruciatus Curse." Mr. Weasley said wearily.

"She **did** have a fondness for the Cruciatus Curse, the bitch is dead now, thank Merlin." said Percy, eliciting surprised glances from most of the group. Percy almost never cursed.

_Harry knew what he had to do. The Death Eaters would have no mercy and Neville couldn't meet the same fate as his parents. Harry turned the prophecy over in his hand, watching the fog-like substance swirl in the orb for a moment. He extended his hand in defeat and almost had to look away as Malfoy leapt forward to take the prophecy, a smug smile on his face the entire time._

_Just as Malfoy's fingers grazed the smooth glass, a loud banging sound was issued for above. A good portion of the Order of the Phoenix burst through two doors, wands aloft. Harry watched with relief as Tonks, Lupin, Moody, Kingsley, and most importantly, Sirius bounded down the steps. Harry's godfather was safe and they had a fighting chance._

_**Hope you all liked it. I should be updating soon. (I also understand that my empty promises thus far are probably the equivalent to Lucy tricking Charlie Brown with the football. I'm really sorry and I know that every time I say I should be updating soon, the first words out of your mouths are probably "Oh, good grief...") :) **_


	12. Flash In The Pan

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**I'm back! I have a computer cord (finally) and can post this chapter (again, finally- it's been sitting on my computer for over a month now). So, it's been almost a year since this fic started and I'm pretty appaled to say that I've only posted 12 chapters... I will do better. The next chapter is on it's way shortly and I'm thinking about posting a one-shot or two soon. **

**Some reviewers have pointed out (and quite rightly) that I miss-used the term "Motley-Crew." I promise I'm not stupid, I knew it was a pun of sorts, I just didn't know it was spelled differently from the band. I also realize that vernon Dursley's line doesn't completely make sense, but I meant for him to link the band directly with term. Sorry 'bout that, folks. I'll work on the clarity of the dialogue! Thank you to those reviewers, though (and anyone who reviews, especially with constructive criticism). I love those kinds of reviews, they make me a better writer and help me work on clarity. So, lots of love to you all!**

**Oh, and anyone who watches the world cup- GO HOLLAND! That goal today was pretty frakking awesome! 3**

_Harry threw himself to the ground, away from Malfoy and the rest of the Death Eaters as Tonks bounded towards them._

_Neville soon joined Harry behind the dais. "Are you okay?" Harry asked._

"_Yes." Neville replied, trying to stop the blood gushing from his nose._

"_And Ron?"_

"_I dink he's all right—he was still fighding the brain when I left—" said Neville, ducking lower behind the stone when a flash of light almost hit him in the head. Seconds after Neville moved, there was a loud crash and the floor he had previously occupied was blown to bits. _

_The two boys jumped out of the way just as Harry was grabbed by the neck and pulled backward. The man who had grabbed him began to squeeze Harry's throat, cutting off his air supply. "Give it to me. Give me the prophecy—" the man hissed._

_Harry couldn't get anyone's attention, they were all fighting the other Death Eaters. Harry tried to stun the man, but he wasn't able to say the spell. The edges of his vision began to fade to black and Harry realized that he would have to give over the prophecy if he did not want to be strangled to death. _

_Just as Harry shifted the orb to the tips of his fingers with the intention handing it over, at least temporarily, there was a loud shout and Harry was being shoved to the ground. The Death Eater's hands had left Harry's neck and he was able to see Neville, Hermione's wand in hand, attacking the Death Eater through the eye holes in his mask. _

"Go, Neville!" George chuckled, Ron and Ginny joining in, watching their brave friend attack a formidable wizard with no magic on his side.

_Harry stood up quickly and yelled, "Stupefy!" The Death Eater crumbled to the floor and as the mask slid off of his face, Harry was overjoyed to see that he had just knocked out Macnair._

_Neville walked over to his friend and Harry thanked him, repaying the favor by pulling Neville out of the path of a dueling Sirius. _

_In his haste to get out of the way, Harry tripped over Mad-Eye Moody and his detached magical eye. Because of this, he was momentarily distracted and didn't see Dolohov rushing towards them. _

"_Tarantallegra!" Dolohov shrieked at Neville, who promptly began to tap dance in the most uncomfortable of fashions. _

"They made him dance? That's how your evil-doers fight? Doesn't really seem that frightening." Vernon Dursley said smugly, latching onto any opportunity to insult the wizarding world.

Professor McGonagall shot him a look that would have crippled many a braver man, but the elder Dursley pretended not to notice.

"You try dueling while dancing." Harry said wearily. To be honest, he didn't really care what the Dursleys thought, he didn't even understand why they were there to begin with. Today might offer some closure—or unrelenting terror if it went badly—to the Weasleys and Grangers, but the Dursleys didn't want closure. They didn't care what Harry's life had been like for the past couple of years. In their opinion, the magical world, including their nephew, didn't concern them.

_Dolohov then turned on Harry and flung the same silent curse that he had used to knock out Hermione. "Protego!" Harry shouted, executing a shield charm that would make his aforemetioned friend proud. Even with the magical protection, the curse sliced into Harry cheek, throwing him to the ground. _

_Dolohov was about to strike again, but Sirius came flying out from behind, knocking the Death Eater to the side. Not easily deterred, the Death Eater jumped up and began furiously dueling with Harry's godfather. _

"_Petrificus Totalus!" Harry shouted, aiming at Dolohov._

"_Nice one!" said Sirius as he spun around to face Harry. "Now I want you to get out of—"_

_Sirius was cut off as he grabbed Harry and pushed them both towards the ground as a Killing Curse shot past them. Up above them, Tonks was knocked unconscious and was thumping down the stone benches._

"Oh, Merlin! Tonks!" Ginny said wincing in sympathy for her- now dead-friend.

"This is harder to watch than you'd expect." Kingsley rumbled, taking the group by surprise.

Harry chimed in then, "I know what you mean—the adrenaline you feel when you're fighting is gone. Now, it just looks like a horrible action film."

Hermione and her parents grimaced in agreement, understanding what Harry was talking about, but the Weasleys looked utterly lost. They knew what films and the cinema were, of course, but the whole concept of different genres for the films was something that was hard to grasp if you'd never actually been to the cinema.

The group at large had turned back to the Pensieve, but the trio whispered quietly amongst themselves.

_Bellatrix, the person Tonks had been dueling, dashed towards Harry and Sirius. "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!" Sirius pushed Harry towards Neville and ran to meet Bellatrix._

_Harry helped Neville stand and tried to climb the stone steps towards the exit. The duo was pushed back down, however, as Lucius Malfoy leapt at them._

"It's weird that I was there for all of this—in another room, but still- and I don't remember any of it." Ron said, watching out of the corner of his eye as Neville and Harry struggled to make their escape. "The first thing I remember is Lupin getting me on a stretcher..." Ron winced at the memory.

"I can't remember anything until the hospital wing" Hermione added, "I still kind of want to know what Dolohov hit me with, though... It was horrible, but an impressive piece of magic."

"That wasn't impressive magic, that was just bad magic, Hermione." Ron hissed angrily.

Hermione just smiled wanly at him and rolled her eyes.

"Believe me, you wouldn't want to have been there or remembered any of it." Harry muttered, his expression growing darker by the moment, waiting for the horrible events to rise inevitably from the Pensieve.

"_The prophecy, give me the prophecy, Potter!" Malfoy growled out, backing up his threat with his wand. _

_Harry did the only thing he could do; he tossed the prophecy to Neville. This distracted Malfoy long enough for Harry to shoot a curse at him._

_Malfoy was thrown into the stone wall of the dais. He regained his faculties quickly and aimed another spell at Harry. Remus Lupin jumped in front of Harry and deflected the curse._

When Lupin appeared, the whole group- at least the non-muggle portion- got quite.

Mrs. Granger was casting a concerned glance at her daughter at the time, like she had been doing at frequent intervals since they had watched Hermione get knocked out by Dolohov. She noticed something was off about the group right away, but it took a few moments for her to look back at the screen and discern the problem.

"That man—" she began tentatively, "he's n—he's not alive is he." she seemed to be purposefully shying away from using the word "dead," as though it would change the outcome if she refused to say it.

Fleur, who had known Lupin for the shortest amount of time, gave a slight nod. She looked back at Bill, who had worked closely with Lupin in the Order, and placed a comforting hand on his arm.

"_Harry, round up the others and GO!" he shouted._

_Harry and Neville made their way slowly and awkwardly up the steps. They were making good progress until a spell broke the step under Harry's feet and both boys fell down._

"_Come on! Just try and push with your legs—" Harry said, grabbing Neville's robes. Eventually, the robes split when they couldn't handle the tension of holding Neville up. The prophecy fell out of torn robes, bounced down the steps, and shattered._

_A ghostly figure rose from the glass shards and began speaking. Unfortunately, the din of the battle drowned out the figure's voice and Harry and Neville watched silently as their opportunity to hear the prophecy passed._

_Harry glanced around to see if anyone else had witnessed what had just happened, but no one had. He noted numbly that Mad-Eye Moody seemed to have regained consciousness and was making his way towards the top of the pit, perhaps trying to search for more reinforcements._

"_Harry, I'b sorry!" said Neville, trying to control his flailing limbs. "I'b so sorry, Harry, I didn'd bean do—"_

"_I doesn't matter! Just try and stand, let's get out of—" Harry was cut off, however, by Neville's cry of elation._

"_Dubbledore!" the flailing wizard shouted, looking relieved and happy._

"_What?" asked Harry—he hadn't been able to understand Neville over the battle sounds._

"_DUBBLEDORE!"_

_Harry spun around, feeling hope rise up inside him. Dumbledore was at the top of the pit, making his way down the steps. Harry instantly felt safe—nothing more would go wrong if Dumbledore was there._

_The Death Eaters stopped dueling and one by one fled up the steps. _

"Why are they running?" Mr. Granger mused aloud.

"Because Dumbledore scared the cack out of them...out of any wizard, really." replied George.

_Bellatrix Lestrange was the only Death Eater not running from the old wizard. She was still furiously dueling Sirius. Sirius, for his part, was ducking around Bellatrix's attacks and laughing at her furious expressions._

"Oh, no." Harry mumbled, mostly to himself.

Hermione and Ron, though they weren't actually present for this part of the battle, knew what was to come and tried to comfort their friend. Hermione patted the top of Harry's hand and Ron leaned around Hermione to grip Harry's shoulder rather hard.

Although the tight grip on Harry's shoulder kept him in the present, instead of floundering in past grief, it was impossible for Harry not to dread the coming moments.

"_Come on, you can do better than that!" Sirius taunted, not knowing that it would be his end. Bellatrix's next shot hit Sirius directly in the chest. Sirius looked surprised by this twist of fate and keeled backward through the veil on the dais, his eyes going blank._

Ginny hadn't heard Harry moments earlier, but the looks upon her brother and friend's faces was enough to alert her to Harry's pain. She leaned forward, about to push away from the bench she was sitting on and go to her not-quite boyfriend (they really hadn't had time to work it all out, yet), but she thought better of it and stayed where she was, shooting panicked looks at Harry the entire time.

_Harry had dropped Neville when Sirius was hit and was now running at breakneck speed down the steps he just climbed. Sirius wasn't dead, Harry mentally reasoned, he couldn't be. He was just unconscious, sleeping off the stunner from behind the veil. A small part of Harry's mind registered Bellatrix's happy expression and Lupin's devastated one, but that small piece of gray matter was silenced quickly. _

_Harry yelled for his godfather as he approached the dais, a cold feeling settling in the bottom of his stomach._

_Lupin caught up to Harry and grabbed hold of him. Harry struggled against Lupin's grip, trying to get to his godfather. _

"_It's too late, Harry—"_

"_We can still reach him—" Harry pleaded to his former professor._

"_There's nothing you can do, Harry... nothing... He's gone." _

_Harry struggled to wrap his mind around Sirius's death, he just couldn't believe it. _

_He argued with Lupin for a while, shouting that Sirius couldn't be dead, before he got quiet. _

_The enormity of the situation fell upon Harry and all he could do was try to push it down, push it away—focus on something else._

_He looked around, casting a worried glance at Tonks, who, although she being tended to by Moody, was still out cold. Kingsley leapt forward out of the shadows and attacked Bellatrix, resuming Sirius's duel._

_Neville cautiously (as cautiously as he could while dancing a frenzied jig) approached Harry. "I'b really sorry... was dat man—was Sirius Black a—a friend of yours?"_

_Harry was only able to nod and was saved from having to really answer._

"_Finite." Lupin lifted the jinx from Neville, allowing him to stand still again. "Let's—let's find the others. Where are they, Neville?"_

"_Dey're all back dere. A brain addacked Ron bud I dink he's all righd—and Herbione's unconscious, bud we could feel a bulse—" Neville moved on to detail the other's injuries, but his words were drowned out by the commotion closer to the dais. Bellatrix had disarmed Kingsley and was fleeing the stone room._

The Weasleys and Grangers winced as Kingsley hit the ground. Kingsley himself, however, merely chuckled, saying it really wasn't that bad.

"I really don't like her." Mrs. Granger said, obviously referring to Bellatrix.

Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't say that she got what she deserved in the end. Sure, Molly Weasley ended the Death Eater's life, but that was nothing in comparison to the punishment she should have received for all of the evil she had spread into the world.

Of course, Mrs. Granger's disapproval would only intensify into rage when she found out what Bellatrix had done to her daughter.

Harry looked over at Hermione, who averted her eyes and ducked her head guiltily.

_Dumbledore was automatically on the attack, but Bellatrix was able to stop the oncoming spells._

_Harry made after the female Death Eater, ignoring Lupin's shouts._

_Out of his mind with rage, Harry kept after Bellatrix. "SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM—I'LL KILL HER!" _

"I really shouldn't have gone after her..." said Harry wearily.

"Not one of your brightest moves." Ron replied with a smirk.

"I don't know what made me try, though. Even after all that Voldemort—" there was stifled gasps all around the room, "—did, I couldn't use the killing curse on him. I don't know why I thought I could use it on her..." Harry trailed off awkwardly.

"It's because you were really stupid then." said George, chiming in with smile, "Sorry to say it, but it's true."

Harry knew George was right. He also knew that it wasn't until Dumbledore's death that he was able to pull himself together. That meant that there were a lot more embarrassing and painful moment to come.

It was going to be a long day.


	13. Author's Note 20

**A/N: So, I posted the new chapter yesterday and had it take the place of the Author's Note, but it doesn't show that I've updated. The new chapter is the previous one. I will leave this A/N up indefinitely and post the new chapters after it so it actually shows that I've updated. Grrrr! Ok rant over... enjoy the chapter: "Flash in the Pan."**


	14. Have The Courage To Live

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**A/N: So, 16 days... better than a month, but still not that great. In my defense, I was at college orientation for part of the time :). Enjoy the new chapter!**

_Harry ran after Bellatrix, not caring that what he was doing was ridiculously stupid. Bellatrix had leapt up the last set of steps and dashed out of the room. Harry, of course, followed her and found himself in the room of brains._

_The female Death Eater turned out halfway and shot a spell at Harry. He was able to duck out of the way just in time and the spell caused a tank of brains to spill across the floor. _

_Harry managed to keep the brains from attaching to him and continued to make after Bellatrix. _

_He passed his friends along the way. It quickly became obvious that they weren't going to be able to help him. Ginny and Luna seemed to be in pain, while Ron giggled uncontrollably, and Hermione lay unconscious. _

_Bellatrix had run into the revolving room with the doors and made a quick dash for the lifts. Harry tried to follow, but the room spun around him, making it impossible to tell which door she fled through._

_Harry stood there for a second, wondering what to do. Finally, he just gave up and yelled, "Where's the exit? Where's the way out?"_

_Miraculously, the room answered his request and the correct door popped open. Harry ran through, but took a second in his head to marvel at the weirdness of magic._

"If we could have just done that in the first place!" Ron said in exasperation, seemingly content not to actually finish the sentence.

"How would we have known?" Ginny inquired, defending their fourteen and fifteen year old selves. "That place is ridiculously complicated. I wonder how the Unspeakables keep from getting lost..."

"Oh, they do get lost." chimed an oddly chipper Mr. Weasley. He seemed to enjoy talking about the Ministry, probably because he had worked there for so long that he was somewhat of an expert. "Especially the trainees from what I hear, right, Kingsley?"

Kingsley nodded his head, a smirk on his face. "Can't say I would ever want to work there... Although," he said, his expression sobering. "now that I know all that they do down there, it seems a lot less mysterious.

"What all do they do?" asked George eagerly.

Percy reached forward and cuffed his brother behind the head. "It's secret Ministry business, George. Civilians aren't supposed to be privy to those kinds of things."

"Yeah, right, Percy. You make it sound like you're privy to those kinds of things. You don't even have a real office!" George teased, referring to the room that Percy shared with two other assistants.

Percy opened his mouth to respond, but Mrs. Weasley turned around and snapped, "That's enough, boys!"

Upon hearing their mother's angry tone, Percy and George quieted down, but Harry swore he heard Percy mutter something angrily about having a real office.

_Bellatrix's lift was already on the move and Harry jumped into the first lift he could find. The ride to the atrium felt painfully slow, even though the lifts were actually pretty quick. He saw the female Death Eater at the other end of the atrium, waiting for the telephone booth lift to open._

_Harry dashed towards her, wand held high. Unfortunately, his shoes clattered against the floor with each step, alerting Bellatrix to his presence. She turned and shot a well-aimed stunner at him. Harry had no choice but to jump behind the magical fountain in the middle of the atrium._

"_Come out, come out, little Harry! What did you come after me for then?" she taunted, her voice echoing around the hall. She sounded like she was everywhere in the room, making it hard for Harry to track where she was. "I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"_

"_Harry moved slightly to the left, crouching lower in a defensive position. "I am!" he screeched in rage. He hated Bellatrix at that moment even more than he hated Voldemort. She was pure evil._

"_Aaaaaah...did you love him, little baby Potter?"_

_Harry couldn't take it anymore. He jumped out from behind the fountain and screamed out the Cruciatus Curse._

_Much to Harry's dismay, his curse didn't affect Bellatrix the way it was supposed to. She didn't scream in unbearable pain, she simply was knocked off her feet. _

"Harry!" Hermione squeaked, completely scandalized. "How could you! You used the Cruciatus!"

Harry looked down at his knees. He hadn't told Ron and Hermione that particular detail about the battle, because he was honestly pretty ashamed that he had stooped that low.

Harry looked over at Ron, trying to gauge his reaction. He didn't look as revolted as Harry figured he would. Ron seemed torn between to emotions. Glancing from the Pensieve back to a seriously angry Hermione. He seemed to be unable to choose between being mad at Harry and congratulating him and trying to cause Bellatrix pain.

To be honest, Harry couldn't completely understand why Hermione was so mad. Sure, she would normally be angry because she, herself was a victim of the Cruciatus Curse, but Harry had been using it against the Death Eater who would later torture her. He supposed it was similar to Harry refusing to use Avada Kedavra on Voldemort, even at the end—there were just some lines you shouldn't cross.

_Bellatrix stood back up and fired a spell at Harry. Harry jumped back behind the fountain just in time to miss being hit by a large chunk of the destroyed fountain._

_The statue-wizard's head stared unblinkingly up at him and Harry felt cold fear surge up his spine. Pushing this feeling away, he slowly inched towards the other side of the fountain, carefully stepping to make as little noise as possible._

"_Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean them, Potter!" Bellatrix screamed, her voice jumping up a few octaves and then settling back down into a horrifying whisper. "You need to really want to cause pain—to enjoy it—I'll show you how it's done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson—" _

"_Crucio!" she yelled, aiming the spell at the spot Harry was about to step into. Harry jumped farther back and watched as a piece of the stone centaur went careening across the atrium._

"_Potter, you cannot win against me! I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete—" Bellatrix ranted, but Harry could still hear her footsteps beneath her words. She was slowly walking around the fountain, trying to get a good shot at him. _

_Harry inched towards her, quickly throwing his arm around the stone goblin and shouting, "Stupefy!"_

_Bellatrix reflected his spell and Harry was forced to retreat again. More of the fountain broke off and the Goblin's ears joined the rest of the broken pieces twenty feet from the center of the atrium._

_Bellatrix seemed to be more angry than before. "Potter, I and going to give you one chance! Give me the prophecy—roll it out toward me now—and I may spare your life!"_

_Harry took a moment to smirk at her words. She didn't know! She didn't know that the prophecy was gone—destroyed. Harry finally had the upper hand._

"_Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry taunted. His glee was short-lived, however, as a searing pain ripped through the scar on his forehead. Harry gripped tightly onto the fountain and waited a moment for his sight to come back into focus before continuing. "And he knows! Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"_

_Bellatrix stopped smiling for a moment. "What? What do you mean?"_

"_The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"_

"_LIAR! YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME—Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!" _

_Harry felt like taunting her. It was foolish, sure, but it would seem that he wasn't going to be able to curse her into oblivion so he needed to get revenge somehow. This feeling was only intensified by the hatred he was feeling courtesy of Voldemort's link to his scar._

_He shoved his non-wand arm into Bellatrix's field of vision and pulled it back just as she fired a killing curse at the appendage. _

"_Nothing's there! Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that—"_

"Why would you taunt her, Harry?" Ginny asked, horrified. Harry knew she was having flashbacks to the last battle when Harry pretended to be dead to fool Voldemort. She hated the thought of him in danger, which Harry thought was a bit hypocritical because Ginny herself had no problems doing something dangerous. Harry thought it was unfair that she was able to worry about him, but he wasn't allowed to worry about her.

He said none of this to Ginny of course, because she had inherited her mother's steely glare and he didn't particularly fancy being on the receiving end of it. Instead, all he said was, "I thought I might have been able to distract her for long enough."

Ginny seemed to accept this answer, seeing the logic in the tactic, but she still gazed at the Pensieve with a look of concern.

Harry had lied a bit, though. Yes, distracting the female Death Eater had been part of his plan, but truthfully, he really just had wanted to piss her off.

_Bellatrix was hysterical now, her gaunt face looking desperate and her eyes bulging. "No! It isn't true, you're lying—MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED—DON'T PUNISH ME—"_

_Harry slumped farther onto the stone creatures, he was losing strength from all the pain in his head. "Don't waste your breath! He can't hear you from here!"_

"_Can't I, Potter?"_

_Harry heard the cold, yet quiet, voice and his eyes snapped open._

_Voldemort stood a couple of meters away from Harry, his wand pointed right at the young wizard's chest._

Upon seeing Voldemort, the wizards in the room, save Harry, shuttered in displeasure. It was amazing that one man could be so feared, even after his death.

"Wait! Who's that?" Mr. Granger asked, not understanding the room's reaction.

"Lord Voldemort." Harry said simply, noticing that the wizards shuttered again at the sound of his name.

Mr. Granger replied with an "Oh... got it," realizing the seriousness of the situation that was playing itself out in the Pensieve.

_Harry couldn't move for a few moments as fear coursed through his body. Bellatrix, he might have been able to handle if he could have caught her off guard, but Voldemort would be impossible to beat._

_Voldemort took half a step forward, his head tilted to one side, giving Harry a perfect view of those red eyes from beneath the cowl of Voldemort's dark cloak. "So you smashed my prophecy? No, Bella, he is not lying...I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind...Months of preparation, months of effort...and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again..."_

_Bellatrix moved towards Voldemort, looking up at him fearfully. "Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black! Master, you should know—"_

"What's an Animagus?" Dudley asked, swiping his mother's hand away as she tried to cover his mouth so as to keep him from talking and drawing attention to them. It was a fruitless endeavor because even if the rest of the group forgot the Dursleys were there, they would never be able to avoid the scrutiny of Professor McGonagall's gaze.

"It's a witch or wizard who can turn into an animal at will." Hermione answered in her textbook voice, not being able help herself from answering an academic question.

Ron glared at her in annoyance. Obviously, he felt that they shouldn't be talking to the Dursleys, who were always quite horrible to Harry. What Ron didn't realize, however, was that talking to the Dursley was more of a punishment than ignoring them.

"I don't get it..." Dudley said, his eyebrows creased in concentration. Harry felt bad for him. He was trying to understand, which was more than he had ever tried to do before.

Harry did not feel bad for his parents, however. Uncle Vernon's face was darkening and Aunt Petunia looked more and more panicked by the second.

Professor McGonagall got up from her seat with a weary sort of sigh. "It works like this." she said, before transforming into a small tabby cat with markings around the eyes. After a few moments, she returned to her human form and sat down again in the corner of the room.

Aunt Petunia screamed when McGonagall transformed, while Uncle Vernon face became so red that Harry thought he might have a stroke. Dudley, surprisingly, looked more interested than anything else, but seemed to have enough sense not to say anything, lest he want to anger his parents even more.

"_Be quiet, Bella. I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your sniveling apologies?" Voldemort snapped, not even bothering to look down at Bellatrix._

"_But Master—he is here—he is below—" Voldemort ignored her and focused solely on Harry._

"_I have nothing more to say to you, Potter. You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"_

_Harry still couldn't move. The spell was just too fast. The shock of seeing Voldemort had worn off and he physically could move again, but his reflexes just weren't as fast as the dark wizard's. _

_Suddenly, one of the half destroyed figures from the fountain jumped forward, protecting Harry from the lethal curse._

"Oh, Merlin! Dear, that was so close!" cried Mrs. Weasley, dismayed that a killing curse had almost hit one of her 'children.' Tears pooled in her eyes and Harry had the urge to say that he was actually going to be killed in a little bit, but he refrained. He knew that the thought of anyone else in her family being killed made Mrs. Weasley flash back to Fred's death.

_Voldemort spun around in dismay, looking for the person who had stopped his attack._

_Dumbledore stood calmly at the end of the hall. A mix of emotions flitted quickly across Voldemort's face—surprise, anger, and perhaps even fear. It was less than a minute before Voldemort gained control again, shooting a curse towards Dumbledore._

_The spell never found purchase, however. Dumbledore had apparated from his original spot to a spot behind the Dark Lord in a blink of an eye._

_At Dumbledore's command, the remaining figures of the fountain charged forward. One pinned Bellatrix back, keeping her from joining the fight._

_Harry strained forward against the stone grip. He needed to help his headmaster, but the statue didn't retreat against his efforts. In fact, it pushed him back towards the wall._

"_It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom. The Aurors are on their way—"_

"_By which time I shall be gone, and you dead!" Voldemort screeched upon hearing his given name._

_The two skilled wizards shot a few spells at each other, none doing real damage to the other person. It soon became clear, however, that Dumbledore was more interested in disarming Voldemort than actually attacking him._

"_You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore? Above such brutality, are you?" the Dark Lord taunted._

"_We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom. Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit—" _

"_There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!"_

_Dumbledore continued his pace towards Voldemort, seemingly unconcerned that he was antagonizing the most feared wizard of all time. "You are quite wrong. Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness—"_

**I know, weird place to end it, but the rest of the battle scene deserves it's own chapter. After the next installment, I'm going to be writing a 'missing moment' type chapter. Thanks for sticking with the story! :)**


	15. I Sink Like A Stone, I Lost My Control

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**Wow, an update in a week. You must be in a state of utter disbelief. Nope, it's real, I promise you. This is the second half of the Dumbledore/Voldemort showdown. It's a bit shorter than the other chapter, but it's here sooner and there shall be more HP fun on the way! Oh, good news/bad news. The good news- I have written about a third of the reactions to Malfoy Manor! the bad news- you guys wont get to see it until we get to that point in the story. Why am I telling you, then? Because it's actually very good news. If I don't start that chapter now, you guys wont see it until 2043. It's the chapter I'm dreading the most (there are such high expectations!), but I think you guys will like it! Ok, so to keep this A/N from being novel length, I'm finishing the rest of it at the bottom. Enjoy!**

_Voldemort attacked then, but the stone centaur protected Dumbledore and gave him enough time to launch a counter-spell. A rope of fire wound it's way around Voldemort, reigning him in. Unfortunately, Voldemort was able to turn the rope into a snake, sending the creature and a killing curse at Dumbledore before disapperating form his spot._

"That's some serious magic." Charlie muttered. He wasn't hugely vocal most of the time and generally refrained from saying superfluous things, but he made an exception for this. The two wizards were attacking each other with more skill and precision than Charlie had ever seen. It was both awe inspiring and completely terrifying.

"That isn't normal?' Mr. Granger asked. He didn't know a ton about magic and had really never seen Hermione perform any serious spells.

"No, not at all." Professor McGonagall answered, as it seemed everyone else was too tied up in the events playing themselves out in the Pensieve to respond. "Tom Riddle was an exceptionally bright student. Not that it gives him any excuse for the actions he took, but there were not many of his skill level. Truly, Dumbledore was the only wizard he ever feared based on skill alone. There were others of course," McGonagall's eyes flicked to Harry, "but Riddle only feared them because of circumstance. Albus was one of the greatest wizards of all time, no matter what that Skeeter woman says."

Mr. Granger, who had been enthralled by McGonagall's speech, looked utterly confused when she began to rant about some woman who was oddly named 'Skeeter.'

Mr. Weasley, seeing Mr. Granger's confusion, piped up. "Rita Skeeter, she's talking about. A journalist, if you want to call her that. She wrote a book on Dumbledore that said some unsavory things about him. Not that she is considered to be a paragon of honesty, mind you, but people tend to believe what she writes."

"She shouldn't even be writing anymore!" Hermione blurted out. The moment the word sleft her lips, she realized she made a mistake and tried to back-track. "Well, I don't mean that she shouldn't write anymore. She did keep up her end of the bargain, I suppose. Really nothing to worry about, then. She's going to write, what she's going to write. Suppose that's what makes up the basis of a fair society..." She trailed off when she saw Harry and Ron laughing silently. They knew what she was trying to cover up, but didn't care if Hermione had accidently ruined Skeeter's career—they hated her.

"What bargain are you talking about, Hermione?" George asked, ignoring the looks Hermione was shooting at him. She hoped that no one would have noticed her slip in speech.

"Oh, you know, it's nothing really. It was during fourth and fifth year... She had to stop writing trash about people for a year and she got Harry's exclusive retelling of the Triwizard tournament in exchange."

"I wouldn't have thought Skeeter would have gone for that. Harry was thought to be mad at the time and that story appeared in the Quibbler. Amazing that it was enough of an incentive.' Ginny marveled.

"Yes, that is quite odd." Harry chimed in, laughing at Hermone's red face and furious expression.

"Oh, alright! Fine! I blackmailed her! Are you happy?" Hermione huffed.

"What did you blackmail her with?" George asked, his eyes gleaming with the thought of mischief.

Hermione would have normally kept her mouth shut or made up some lie that sounded plausible enough, but seeing George's enthusiasm made her want to continue his happiness. "Well," she blustered. "I found out that she had an interesting way of getting inside information to back up her stories with."

"Oooh! Was she bribing people? Government-type people?" George asked. He merely rolled his eyes when his mother shouted at him for inappropriateness. Anyone could tell, however, that her heart wasn't in it. She was just as happy to see the old George as everyone else was.

"No, she wasn't. At least, not that I know of, anyway. Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus..." Hermione finished with a sigh.

"A what?" exclaimed Professor McGonagall, Kingsley, Percy, and Mr. Weasley all at the same time.

"That's a horrible misuse of magic! Completely illegal!" Percy all but shouted.

"She should be arrested, Kingsley! We Animagi are supposed to hold ourselves to higher standard in exchange for the ability that we have." huffed an infuriated Professor McGonagall.

Kingsley seemed to have recovered from his earlier outburst and was pondering something. "I agree that legal actions should be taken against her, but we should wait. She's been planning a book on Harry since the end of the war and I think we should wait until it's published."

"Why, in the name of Merlin, should you wait?" Ron asked, angry that they were going to let Skeeter publish more horrible things about his friend. "Harry saved the bloody world and you're going to let her print outright lies about him?" Mrs. Weasley turned around and hissed "Language, Ron!" at her youngest son.

"I understand you're anger, Ron, but we can use this to our advantage. If we arrest Skeeter now, then if her book accidently get out into the world, she could say that she was telling the truth all along and the government was trying to shut her up. If we wait for her to publish the book, then we can arrest her and denounce it all at the same time. She becomes the story instead of the book."

Ron still looked mutinous, but he understood the logic behind waiting.

The group settled down and began to refocus their attention on the Pensieve. Mr. Granger turned around quickly. "Hermione," he muttered angrily, "we need to talk later. Blackmail, altering peoples' memories, going off and doing life threatening things. These are not acceptable behaviors."

Hermione opened and closed her mouth, but seemed at a loss for words. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, as Mr. Granger had turned back around and was studiously ignoring his daughter.

_The old wizard wasn't going to be able to react in time and Harry screamed out a warning as the killing curse made its way closer to his mentor. Suddenly, there was a burst of orange and gold flames as Fawkes, the phoenix, flew in front of his master, swallowing the killing curse. The bird fell to the ground to be reborn from the ashes of its death._

_This gave Dumbledore enough time to banish the snake and spin around towards Voldemort, who was now standing in the middle of the fountain. Dumbledore flicked his wand ever so slightly and the water of the fountain engulfed Voldemort. _

_The water crashed back down into the basin and Voldemort was gone._

_Bellatrix shouted for her master, still pinned beneath a stone figure._

_Harry almost cheered in relief and tried to move from his place behind the staute._

"_Stay where you are, Harry!" shouted Dumbledore._

_At first, Harry didn't understand, but soon, when his scar ripped with pain, it became clear. It wasn't over yet._

_Harry had never felt pain so intense in his life and he screamed out at the top of his lungs._

"What's happening? Why were you screaming, Harry?" Ginny asked frantically.

"My scar," replied Harry, morosely. "He was using the connection to toy with Dumbledore. It was the most painful thing I've ever felt.

"Worse than dying?" asked Ginny, her voice cracking on the last word.

"Yeah. Dying didn't hurt at all." said Harry. It honestly hadn't and it felt nice not having to lie to Ginny. He liked being able to comfort her without having to play down an issue.

_Harry felt like he was being possessed or like he was possessing something,he was in too much pain to tell the difference. The being inside him spoke through him. "Kill me now, Dumbledore... If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy..."_

_The pain was so intense that Harry wouldn't have minded death. He spoke with the creature this time, not sure if he was saying the words out loud or in his head. Harry pleaded with Dumbledore to end his life, to stop the pain. A lightbulb illuminated in his head. If he were dead, not only would the pain stop, but he would be able to see Sirius again._

_Many different emotions overtook Harry at that moment; sadness over Sirius's death, anger at Bellatrix and at his godfather, who had promised to always be there for Harry, fear over the fate of his friends, and hope. It may have been the overload of emotions or it may have been that one single strand of hope, but the pain began to lessen. The creature's grip on him lessened._

_The being that had been with Harry left and his present situation came into sharp relief. _

_Harry looked over at Dumbledore and began to ask where Voldemort had gone to, but he stopped short when he noticed the swarm of people around him. Standing up, Harry saw the shocked looks on many peoples' faces. _

_Cornelius Fudge stood in awe of the scene around him. There was an eerie silence that permeated the huge atrium. This silence was broken by a cry from one of the onlookers. "He was there!" the man said. "I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear, it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!"_

"_I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too! Merlin's beard—here—here!-in the Ministry of Magic—great heavens above—it doesn't seem possible—my word—how can this be?" Fudge stuttered, lamely._

"Cornelius Fudge—a very articulate man." Ron said dryly, causing everyone to laugh.

_Dumbledore told Fudge where the captured Death Eaters were being held. The Minister didn't seem to know what to do with all of this information and seemed ready to arrest Dumbledore out of sheer confusion._

_Of course, Dumbledore recognized this, as well, and set Fudge straight. "Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men—and win again! But a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing that wrong men for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"_

_Fudge sputtered for another moment before ordering two of his Aurors to check the accuracy of Dumbledore's claims about the captured Death Eaters. "Dumbledore," Fudge said, trying to sound more authoritative, "you—you will need to tell me exactly—the Fountain of Magical Brethren—what happened?" _

"_We can discuss this after I have Harry sent back to Hogwarts."_

"_Harry-Harry Potter?" Fudge wondered, as he had not seen Harry yet. "He-here? Why—what's this all about?"_

_Dumbledore began to seem impatient, "I shall explain everything when Harry is back at school."_

_Dumbledore then created a portkey out of the wizard's head from the fountain, ignoring Fudge's protests and claims of authority. The Minister shrunk back a bit when Dumbledore wheeled around and began giving off instructions. _

_From what Harry could hear over the residual adrenaline pumping in his ears, Dumbledore was ordering Fudge around and imploring that the Minister take no longer than half an hour of his time._

_Harry snapped completely back into focus for a few moments while Dumbledore handed him the wizard's head. "I shall see you in half an hour. One...two...three..."_

_The atrium spun out of focus and Harry felt the now familiar sensation of portkey-travel pull him up and away from the Ministry of Magic._

**A/N: So, the next chapter shall be a missing moment kind of thing, but I have a question. **

**Would you all prefer if-  
a) I write it as a missing moment type chapter with little to no present day reactions. (you will still get you're angst and anger fix, don't worry.)  
b) I put in the same amount of present day reactions that I do in the other chapters (I'm worried there might not be enough material for that.)  
c) or should I write the missing moment section with little to no present day reactions, but then write a normal cannon/reaction section underneath(I'm assuming this might be the favorite, as it would mean that the chapter would be longer.)**

**Please let me know what you think, I write this for you guys and I want you to enjoy it. You don't even have to really review, just send me a message or a review with the letter of the option you like! Lots of love to ya all!**


	16. I Can See The Ground Far Below

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the HP universe.**

**So, here is the long chapter as promised. It's almost 5000 words and while length isn't everything (feel free to insert dirty joke here) I am pleased with the way it turned out. I should be able to update once more before I go to college. The updates after that should still be about every two weeks, but it might take me an extra week or two to get back to writing once I've started my classes. This ends in kind of a funny place, but the next section deserved a chapter of it own. Enjoy! :)**

_The hospital wing always had such a distinct smell- harsh and antiseptic. Ron opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. His arms ached something awful and his head felt rather full. _

_The light wasn't as bright as he thought it would be. It was daylight already, but the windows were shuttered and the candles around the ward were the only constant light. _

_The heaviness in his head made him want to turn over and go back to sleep. He was in the process of obliging when he heard a muffled sniffle on the other end of the ward. With what he later might describe as a Herculean effort, Ron sat up in the bed and looked around the room. He saw that Hermione was still unconscious or at least asleep. Ginny was lying face-down in the bed next to Hermione's, her shoulders shaking and her fists clenched tight on her pillow._

_Being the good big brother that he was, Ron hoisted himself out of bed and stumbled over to Ginny. "Hey," he said, shaking her arm. "What's the matter?"_

_Ginny jumped slightly, obviously thinking everyone else was still asleep, and turned towards her brother. Her face was streaked with tears and her teeth were gnashed together. "It's horrible!" she said, unclenching her jaw. "Si- Si- Sirius is gone. Dead." _

_Ron jerked in surprise. "Are... are you sure?" It didn't seem possible that the man who was clever enough to survive Azkaban could be dead._

_Ginny sat up so she could speak clearly. "Yes. Lupin told me. He said that Sirius fell through that veil. You know the one that Harry spent forever looking at? Apparently Bellatrix Lestrange killed him. Poor Harry, his godfather's dead. Poor Lupin! Sirius was his best friend!" Ginny collapsed back into sobs and Ron didn't seem to know what to do. Not only was crying completely out of character for Ginny, but comforting people was completely out of character for Ron. He was rather dreadful at it. He gave it his best effort by putting his arm around his little sister and letting her cry on his shoulder._

Ginny looked rather uncomfortable. Harry knew that she hated crying in general, but having others see her being "weak" made Ginny crazy.

Well, Harry thought, even if the group was remotely interested in Ginny's sadness now, they would soon forget her waterworks when they saw Harry's breakdown in Dumbledore's office.

Harry was already beginning to get embarrassed. It wasn't one of his proudest moments and definitely not something he wanted the Weasleys and Grangers to see.

_After what seemed like days, but was probably only an hour or so, Hermione stirred in her hospital bed. _

_Ginny and Ron sat up and waited for their friend to wake up fully. "I better go get Madam Pomfrey." Ginny said, quietly. "She needs Hermione to take a couple of potions." Ron nodded in understanding as Ginny shuffled to Madam Pomfrey's office door. _

_Hermione opened her eyes and Ron, who had climbed back into his bed so he wouldn't get yelled at by Madam Pomfrey, said, "Hey, you're awake!" _

_Hermione blinked a couple of times and turned towards Ron. "Yeah, I'm awake... I think. What happened? Was anyone hurt?" _

"_Well, You, me, and Ginny were the worst off. Ginny's fine now, just a broken ankle. I'll be fine, eventually. Neville had a broken nose that Madam Pomfrey fixed in about ten seconds. Luna's, well... Luna. She'll be all right. Harry doesn't have more than some scrapes I think, so I suppose he's fine physically..." Ron replied, his voice fading off at the end._

_Hermione definitely didn't miss Ron's choice of words. "And mentally?"_

"_Not so good, I would reckon. Ummm... Sirius was killed." said Ron, surreptitiously wiping his eyes on his pajama sleeve._

"_Oh, no." whispered Hermione, crying. "That's horrible!"_

_Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Madam Pomfrey chose that moment to bustle in with a tray of potions in her hands and Ginny in tow._

"_All right, here we go. You," she ordered, pointing to Ginny. "Get back in bed. Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, sit up. There are potions to be taken."_

"_I'm fine, really!" complained Ginny. "It was just my ankle and Tonks healed it at the Ministry. It's good as new!"_

"_No! You shall stay for observation. I do recall that Nymphadora was in here quite a few times herself while at Hogwarts and while she's a competent witch—" Madam Pomfrey cut herself off and shook her head as if to keep herself from saying bad things about a former student. "Besides, from what I've been told, she had just been revived and was about to be taken to St. Mungo's for observation. She shouldn't have been performing healing spells in her condition."_

_Ginny sat down with a huff. Meanwhile, Hermione was desperately trying to sit up, wincing in pain all the while. Madam Pomfrey noticed and tutted like a chicken. "Ribs broken, internal scarring. Could've been worse, but definitely bad enough." She helped Hermione sit up and began passing potions around to her three charges._

"_I don't know exactly what you lot have been up to, but it must be bad business if it gives you injuries like these." Madam Pomfrey said as she passed out the potions. "A broken ankle is one thing, but they should have brought you to me straight away, Ms. Weasley. Those brains will most likely leave permanent scarring, Mr. Weasley. And Ms. Granger, it's good thing this curse wasn't at its full potency; it does nasty things... horrible really."_

"You were injured?" Mr. Granger asked his daughter, outraged. "We were never told about this!"

"I didn't want to worry you!" Hermione said desperately. "They gave me the option of having you both notified, but what good would it have done?"

"What good would it have done?" Mrs. Granger repeated angrily. "We are your parents, we should have known!"

"It's not like you could have visited me. I remembered how freaked out you got after I was petrified second year because you couldn't actually come to Hogwarts and see me. I didn't want you to be told I was hurt and not be able to do anything about it."

"While I understand the logic in that," Mr. Granger began and Harry could definitely see where Hermione got her argumentative skills from. "You should have told us when you got home. We would have been able to see that you were safe and not have been blindsided when we happened upon the truth."

Hermione let out a weary sort of sigh, but didn't respond. Harry could tell that she had given up arguing with them.

_Ron, Hermione, and Ginny each took their potions and Madam Pomfrey went back to her office, collecting the empty bottles with a sweep of her wand._

"_Well, she's cheery, isn't she?" joked Ron, eliciting laughter from his sister and best friend._

"Really, Ron!" admonished Percy. "Was then the time to be cracking jokes?"

"Yeah, 'course it was." Ron replied indignantly. "What's the point of a joke if it you can't use it to lighten the mood?"

"Well, look at that, Ronnie!" George said with a smug smile. "Finally catching on are we? Not that the joke you made was in any way funny, 'cause it wasn't, but it's a start."

Ron's ears colored a bit when George used his childhood nickname.

What Harry was wondering, however, is why George was so interested in Ron's comedic timing. It seemed to be an odd thing to care about at a time like this.

"_Who killed Sirius?" Hermione asked, crying again. Ginny began crying too and climbed onto Hermione's bed. The girls hugged gingerly because of Hermione's broken ribs, but they did their best to comfort each other._

_Ron was crying a little too, but was trying to hide it; it wasn't exactly manly to cry in front of his sister and friend. "Bellatrix Lestrange. That's what Lupin told you, right Ginny?" Ginny confirmed this by nodding and hugging her best friend a bit tighter. _

_She was soon dislodged, however, as Hermione had sat up straight and balled her hands into fists. "That woman is utterly vile! She was mocking us back in the room with the prophesies and did you see the way she was throwing Unforgivable Curses around? Killing Curse here... Cruciatus over there. It's despicable!"_

"_I know," said Ginny patting her friend soothingly on the shoulder. _

"_What happened after that?" Ron asked, leaning forward with horror and interest._

"_Voldemort appeared and Bellatrix escaped." Ginny continued in soft tones, as to avoid bothering Madam Pomfrey. "Dumbledore got there just in time and was able to stop Voldemort from killing Harry. The Ministry officials arrived just as the fight was ending, but they caught a glimpse of Voldemort, so I suppose Harry is vindicated, at least."_

"_What happened to the prophecy?" Hermione asked. "I was hit before I saw..."_

"_It was smashed." replied Ron "I heard Kingsley talking about it when he freed me of those brains."_

"_I wonder what it said that was important enough for Voldemort to try and get it?" Ginny asked._

"_I don't know... one set of initials may have been Dumbledore's. I remember Harry telling me that Dumbledore had a ridiculously long name." Hermione said thoughtfully._

"Harry, how did you know what Dumbledore's full name was?" asked Ginny, "I always wondered, but never remembered to ask."

"When he defended me at my trial, he gave his full name to the Wizengamot. It's the kind of thing that sticks in the mind." Harry replied, causing Ginny to chuckle.

Harry thought it was odd that he and Ginny were able to function quite well in a public setting, falling back into their old patterns of banter, but failed horribly when they spoke one-on-one.

About a week after the battle, Harry and Ginny ended up alone together in the sitting room of the Burrow. When other members of the family had been in there moments before, the conversation flowed easily and Harry felt comfortable, extremely sad, of course, but at least not awkward. As soon as the others left, however, all forms of verbal communication stopped immediately as if a silencing charm had been cast.

It was ridiculous. Harry just wanted things to go back to the way they were before the horcrux hunt and that horribly hellish year.

"_Maybe Dumbledore will tell Harry. He's in the headmaster's office now. Or, at least, that what I think I heard McGonagall and Pomfrey talking about. Apparently, Madam Pomfrey is angry that she couldn't treat Harry right away." Ginny replied as she had the most information about the events that had transpired in the stone pit and atrium._

_Ron, Hermione, and Ginny speculated about the prophecy for a while, but none of the scenarios they created made a ton of sense._

_The conversation came to an abrupt end when Madam Pomfrey burst forth from her office again. "Ms. Granger," she said, moving rapidly in their direction, "I have more potions for you."_

"_More?" Hermione groaned._

"_Yes, of course, more. You will have to take almost a dozen a day. That curse was no laughing matter. Oh, and Mr. Weasley, I have a salve for your wounds."_

"_Oh, yeah," muttered Ron,while looking down at his arms, "How long until they go away?"_

"_They will not ever go away completely, Mr. Weasley. They will fade, but memories create a very permanent type of scarring."_

_Ron's face paled considerably, a difficult thing to do considering his already pale complexion. Ginny who was still sitting on Hermione's bed leaned forward to pat her brother on the shoulder, one of the only parts of Ron's arms that was scar-free._

"_Alright, then," Ron said, trying to move past the news of his permanent scarring, "How long will I have to stay here?"_

_Madam Pomfrey thought for a moment, "A week, I should say. Same goes for you Miss. Granger."_

_Both Ron and Hermione groaned at this news, but they noises of discontent were muffled by Ginny, who asked Madam Pomfrey how long she was expected to stay._

"What were you two complaining about? I would have loved to get out of exams and classes for a week." George said, almost horrified by Ron and Hermione's reaction to the length of their hospital stay.

"Have you ever had to stay more than one day in the hospital wing, George?" Ron asked, rising to the defense. "It's bloody boring!"

"Ron, language!" Mrs. Weasley admonished.

Ron pretty much ignored her, but had the decency to pretend he was somewhat ashamed.

"It was O.W.L year, George! It was imperative that we learn as much as possible to get ready for our N.E.W.T year!" Hermione said.

"Yeah," George began laughing in earnest. "the year you never took."

"Well, we didn't know we wouldn't get the opportunity to finish school. Besides, I plan on going back now. So you see, I needed to learn everything I could while I was still able to." Hermione finished with a smug smile.

"You're going back?" asked Ron, who looked completely perplexed.

"Well, of course I am! I can't be expected to start a successful career without the proper qualifications." Hermione replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Harry supposed that to her, it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Wait, aren't you both going back?" The question was directed at Ron and Harry, but Harry bet that Hermione cared more about Ron's answer than she did about his.

Either way, both boys only hesitated for a second before replying with a resounding, "No."

"But... but..." Hermione stuttered, at a loss for words. Mrs. Weasley seemed ready to back any argument Hermione made.

"Actually," Kingsley started, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the room. "we have some opportunities here at the Ministry that you three, as well as the rest of the DA, will be offered with the N.E.W.T requirement waved. We'll can discuss options later, though."

This seemed to appease Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, but it left Harry wondering.

He couldn't even begin to hope that he would be offered a spot in the Auror program. He would probably be given a desk job that paid pretty well as compensation for his work against Voldemort. The Ministry would do this thinking Harry would want a break from dark wizards for a while. And, truthfully, he did want a break, but the summer would suffice. It would be the most peace he had gotten in a long time.

Besides, a small part of Harry still wanted revenge for all the lives lost fighting Voldemort. If Harry could help bring in the remaining Death Eaters, he might get the closure he really needed.

"_I feel that you should stay for observation. At least for the day. Your ankle seems to be fine, but injuries should not be healed 'on scene.' It's a dangerous practice. Anyway," she said, collecting herself, "I suppose that you may leave tomorrow."_

_Ginny brightened slightly at the news, knowing that there was an end in sight._

_Hermione had long since finished off her potions and Madam Pomfrey went back to her office._

_The Weasley siblings and Hermione sat in silence for a while, not quite sure what to do._

_Finally, Ginny broke through the quiet, "I'm really worried about Harry. I mean, first Cedric, and now this. It's so sad."_

"_Yeah, it is sad," agreed Ron, "but, I dunno, maybe he'll be okay. He got to know Sirius, that's something at least. Sirius was a pretty cool bloke. Being an animagus must be fun." Ron was vacantly grinning toward the end of his sentence, probably daydreaming about what it would be like to be able to change into an animal._

"_I don't know, Ron," Ginny began, smirking. "Animagus forms are supposed to reflect your true personality. You'd probably end up being turned into a sloth or something."_

"Ginny! Don't insult your brother like that!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

"Oh, come on, Mum! Ron would have said the same thing to me. Only difference is that when I say it, it's actually true." Ginny retorted with a cheeky grin. Ron returned it easily and rolled his eyes.

Harry was glad to see that the Weasley siblings were starting to fall back into their usual routines and bickering. It felt normal and healthy.

What wasn't healthy was Mrs. Weasley's new vehemence when telling her children off from picking on each other. Before the final battle, Mrs. Weasley would mildly reprimand her kids if things got out of hand, but now if any of the Weasleys said anything remotely insulting to one of their siblings, they could expect a full lecture form their mother.

Even Bill, who was almost thirty, wasn't immune. A week ago, he had told Percy to pull the stick out of his arse—good advice in Harry's opinion as Percy was way too uptight for his own good—and Mrs. Weasley sat Bill down and lectured him on proper behavior for a good ten minutes.

Granted, this new behavior was probably just an emotional reflex to Fred's death, but Harry hoped it would end soon. With so many Weasleys and so many opportunities for insults, Mrs. Weasley was going to drive herself mad quite quickly.

_Ron looked mildly insulted. "You saying I'm slow, eh?"_

"_No, not necessarily, just lazy." Ginny replied. She knew she'd hit a nerve with that comment. Ron was really lazy, but he hated being called out on it._

_Hermione and Ginny began laughing in earnest when they saw Ron's half stunned-half outraged expression. Finally, Ron cracked a smile and laughed with the girls. He hated to admit it, but Ginny was right. It was annoying, but still pretty amusing when his little sister was able to insult or outwit him._

* * *

_The three continued to make jokes and tell stories about Sirius and cry because that was how they were going to get over their grief. _

_Harry arrived in Dumbledore's office moments after he had touched the golden wizard's head in the atrium of the Ministry. The head fell from his grasp and cracked on the marble floor. _

_Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry hoped that the heavy statue piece didn't crack the swirled stone of the floor. This nagging though was quickly pushed aside, however, as the first tendrils of real grief began to wind their way through him._

_Along with the grief, came guilt. Harry felt so incredibly guilty. He had drawn his godfather into harm's way and Sirius had been killed because of it. Not to mention the danger he put his friends and the other members of the Order in. Why did he do something so stupid? Why didn't he listen to Snape's lectures on Occlumency? Maybe none of this would have happened if Voldemort hadn't been able to see into his mind._

_Harry would have stood there, wallowing in self-pity and anger for years if a voice hadn't pulled him from his mind._

"_Ah... Harry Potter..." a portrait behind Harry said._

_It took Harry a moment to recognize the painted wizard. Finally, he figured out who it was. Phineas Nigellus blinked at Harry in a standoffish manner from behind his gilded frame._

"_And what bring you here in the early hours of the morning? This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful headmaster. Or has Dumbledore sent you here?" Phineas paused and yawned before continuing. "Oh, don't tell me... Another message for my worthless great-great-grandson?"_

"Who's that?" Mrs. Granger asked the room at large.

"Phineas Nigellus." replied Mr. Weasley. "He was a headmaster at Hogwarts a long time ago/ Most unpopular headmaster to date. He has a sister portrait hanging at number 12 Grimmuald Place. It's how Dumbledore communicated with the Order for a while."

"Number 12 Grimmauld Place?" Mrs. Granger repeated, not understanding the reference.

Hermione spoke up then. "It was the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and it was Sirius's mother's house."

"Ugh. That portrait." Ginny groaned, referring to the painting of Mrs. Black that hung in the house.

When the non-wizards in the room looked at her oddly, she explained. "Mrs. Black had a portrait of herself attached to the wall with an unbreakable sticking charm. She just sits in her frame and screams at people all day. She's really quite vile. Even Sirius though so."

"Can't say that any of the Black family besides Sirius was particularly agreeable." said Mr, Weasley. Harry silently nodded in affirmation.

_Harry couldn't bring himself to respond. It made his blood boil to head Phineas speak poorly of Sirius, especially considering the circumstances. Not that Phineas could know that Sirius was dead, of course. Harry couldn't even muster up the energy to admonish the rude portrait, however._

_Walking away from Phineas, Harry pulled on the doorknob, but it refused to budge. _

_Another portrait near him spoke. "I hope this means that Dumbledore will soon be back with us?" Harry felt that this question was innocent enough and even though he still couldn't speak, he nodded to be polite._

"_Oh, good. It has been very dull without him, very dull indeed."_

_The portrait of the wizard continued to speak to Harry, seemingly needing no verbal response. "Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, as I'm sure you know. Oh, yes. Holds you in great esteem."_

_This didn't really help Harry get over his self-pity, but hie was distracted by the whooshing of flames coming from the fireplace. Dumbledore arrived, much to the pleasure of the various portraits that adorned the walls of the office._

_Dumbledore took a moment to situate Fawkes on his perch. The poor bird looked just like he did after a burning and Harry hoped that Fawkes would be able to grow into his normal form again._

_Dumbledore informed Harry that his friends would be okay in time. A look of sympathy passed over the older wizard's face. "I know how you are feeling, Harry."_

"_No, you don't" Harry all but shouted. He hated when people tried to relate to his problems when they had no idea what they were talking about._

_Phineas, of course, felt the need to rub salt in Harry's emotional wounds. "You see, Dumbledore? Never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own—"_

_Dumbledore cut him off, knowing that Phineas was not in any way helping the situation._

"_There is no shame in feeling what you are feeling, Harry. On the contrary... the fact that you can feel pain like this is your biggest strength." Dumbledore said quietly._

_Anger began to gush through Harry's system in an alarming rate. He felt as if he were about to explode. "My greatest strength, is it? You haven't got a clue... You don't know..."_

"_What don't I know?"_

"_I don't want to talk about how I feel, alright?"_

_Dumbledore kept pushing. "Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human—" _

_Harry snapped at that moment, not able to take one more second of Dumbledore's patronizing attitude. "THEN—I—DON'T—WANT—TO—BE—HUMAN!" He screamed, throwing one of Dumbledore's possessions across the room._

"_I DON'T CARE! I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH,I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" Harry couldn't seem to stop himself from destroying more of his headmaster's belongings. It was the only cathartic thin he could do besides scream._

Harry could see the Weasleys and Grangers shooting concerned looks in his direction, while the Dursleys looked smug as if Harry's outburst somehow confirmed their suspicions about their nephew.

Harry was so embarrassed and while he wasn't really prone to blushing or getting red like Hermione and Ron were, he could fell a flush rising in his neck and face.

He turned towards Ron and Hermione, barely whispering so as not to be heard. "I was so horrible to him." he said, referring to Dumbledore. "He did know what it was like to feel guilty over someone's death and I just went around breaking his stuff."

Ron leaned across Hermione with what was supposed to be a reassuring look upon his face. "Everyone understands, mate." he said, quietly. "Sirius had just died. He was basically the only family you had, except us."

"And even that's not the same." Hermione piped up. "Sirius was your Dad's best friend. He treated you like a friend instead of godson. Lupin was your Dad's friend too, but he didn't act like James and Sirius did. He acted more like me. Merlin knows you don't need another person to nag you." Hermione laughed at her own joke and Harry felt a bit better.

The Dursleys wouldn't understand the intricacies of Harry and Sirius's relationship and the Grangers were bound to hate him anyway for constantly leading their daughter into danger.

It was the Weasleys he was worried about, but Harry thought that they might understand. They, too, experienced mind numbing grief when Fred died and for days there was always someone who broke down crying at the kitchen table. They would understand Harry's anger and pain.

_Harry yelled at Dumbledore some more, ignoring the older wizard's assertions that Harry did care and that what he was feeling was normal. It wasn't normal, it couldn't be normal to feel this much pain and anger. Harry tried to run from the office, but the door still wouldn't open._

"_Let me out."_

"_No."_

"_Let me out." Harry repeated._

"_No."_

"_If you don't—if you keep me in here—if you don't let me—" Honestly, Harry didn't know what he would do if Dumbledore didn't let him out of the office. Harry was outmagicked by his headmaster._

"_By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many." was all Dumbledore said in reply._

_Harry was momentarily stunned into silence, but anger pushed word out of him again. "Let me out."_

"_Not until I have had my say."_

"_Do you—do you think I want to—do you think I give a—" Harry heaved a large breath. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY! I don't want to hear anything you have to say!"_

_Dumbledore seemed resigned and Harry thought that maybe he would be allowed to leave. What he wasn't expecting, however, were the next words out of his headmaster's mouth. "You will. Because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it."_

"_What are you talking—"_

"That poor man." Professor McGonagall muttered. When Charlie looked at her curiously, she elaborated.

"Albus always blamed himself for everything. He carried the world on his shoulders."

The wizards of the group nodded in agreement. Professor McGonagall's words did nothing to ease Harry's guilt. If anything, her assertions only exacerbated his pain.

_Dumbledore took a calming breath and began a tale that, if it weren't for the fact that Harry knew some of the events to be true, he would have never believed them. "It is my fault that Sirius died. Or should I say almost entirely my fault—I will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever, and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should have never believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try to lure you to the Department of Mysteries, and you would have never been tricked into going there tonight. And Sirius would not have come after you. That blame lies with me, and with me alone."_


End file.
